Hi Friends, You and I live in a world that loves to keep busy. Sometimes even our self-worth is tied to it. All my hands have made We have so much to accomplish, so much to do, so little time. Running around, succeeding, failing, pulling ourselves up by those self-sufficient bootstraps, we’ve got this! And just as we feel most proud of our productivity, most comfortable with our early rising, moonlighting, scheduled-in-half-hour-blocks kind of lives, He comes. He sets His hand gently on our heads. God makes us lie down. He is so kind. Loves with a beautiful gentleness that is determined to make us great. In His perfect wisdom, He knows just when and how to prune us. And yet, when we feel like we have it all together, and He takes away a few of the spinning plates, it can feel like failure and a demotion. The false sources of identity are stripped away, and we are left wondering who are without all the activity. Who are we if we aren’t putting out fires and leading the charge? But if we are willing to wait, it’s here that we find He is doing something far deeper, far greater, far more desirable than all our striving and running and “busy” could ever accomplish. As we take the time and make the space, as we submit to the hand of God and are willing to look “unproductive” on the outside, we begin to hear a familiar voice that cuts through accusations of shame and failure, through the white noise of constant activity, and reaches to the core of us. Be still and know that I am God. The knowledge of who He is: this is what He writes on our souls in the waiting. And He tells us the truths of who we are. Embracing the silence feels risky, and if I’m honest, I’m afraid to be still. —Anna |
I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Hi Friends, There’s a segment in Sesame Street that I remember from childhood. It begins with a catchy jingle where Grover sings, “one of these is not like the others”. Then it teaches kids to identify what doesn’t fit in. Two circles and a square. Two red frisbees and a yellow frisbee. You get the picture. The Lord’s Prayer deals with some weighty life issues. But one line has stood out to theologians consistently over the centuries as an incompatible addition. Here’s the lineup: Holiness,...
Hi Friends, I remember a few years ago I was reading through Psalm 23:2-3, “He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul”. I sang this chorus about it: You touch my heart and cause me to thirstBy grace You draw me to the riverAnd now I see You are the waterIt’s You on every sideJesus is the source of both our need and our satisfaction. It’s Him on every side. Cognitively, we know this. We teach it to our children in infancy, right? “Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He...
Dear Friends, You know that thing you carry in your heart, tucked just below the surface? Where you go about your normal day—making coffee, driving to work, cleaning up the messes of your kids—but you know if someone asks you just the right question at just the right time you might crack open and this thing would spill straight out? That thing. Maybe it’s a prayer for the healing of a family member, or for a strained relationship. Maybe it’s prayer for your marriage or a wayward child. I call...