Step out of the traffic!

One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10. In fact the whole chapter is pretty great. It speaks of earthquakes, war, oceans and mountains...in other words, Monday mornings. The Lord tells us to trust Him in the face of these things. Whatever these things are for you.

Here are my things:

1. Am I "enough" mom for my precocious and energetic little man?
2. Am I "enough" wife for my husband? Am I pretty enough, clean enough, organized enough?
3. How do I maintain some of "me" in the face of a daily to do list longer than my arm and bigger than my day?
4. Should I get a new job?
5. Is the washing machine going to back up again?
6. What if we need a whole new roof?
7. What kindergarten should we choose? Will our choice impact his ENTIRE. SCHOOL. CAREER?
8. What next steps? 
9. How the heck can I be still? What does that even mean? Still!? Nothing in my life is still.

And on and on. These are some of today's. They will add and multiply while I sleep tonight, like so many baby bunnies in our backyard.

So, I look up The Message version of this passage:

“Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.”

And I think it looks something like this in real life: (This is not my preaching to you...this is my preaching to ME. If you get something out of it. Awesome.)
Make time each day to step out of the traffic. 20-30 minutes. No facebook/instagram/twitter/pinterest. 
Do something that connects your heart to God's. I won't dictate what that is. For me, it's a little writing. It makes me meditate on something inside and see how it relates to my outsides. Also, singing. Songs that make you smile or reflect or grieve or hope. God so very often nudges my heart through song. You might doodle, listen to worship, color (!), read Scripture, read a devotional, close your eyes and breathe deeply (sitting up--zzzzzzzz--so you don't nap).

Why? For years now, I have not made a regular practice of stepping out of traffic. It leaves me frazzled, desperate. It's a sinking that no list-making and errand-running can rescue. It's living WITH the earthquakes and letting them shake me, instead of standing above them with a God's-eye-view. Every tremor makes me feel as if the earth might just swallow me up. And in the worst moments, wonder if that would be ok too. Disappearing into the depths of a great big hole.

Here's the thing. When we are still and KNOW that HE IS GOD, what we are saying is that we are NOT GOD. When we let Him take on the kingdoms and the mountains, we are ceding control. Our hands aren't big enough, nor are our minds equipped to carry and process it all. All my life I've known He's God with my head and my heart, but not necessarily with my BODY. I don't have a faith problem as much as I have a putting-my-faith-to-work problem. If I want to experience what I believe, I have to make a regular, concerted and intentional effort to allow Him to BE GOD through an obedient act of STILLNESS. 

No wonder we feel at our ends. We are trying to be God...to our families, our work, our churches...swooping in and saving them all. The act of stopping is saying, "You are God. I am not." The end. There's no other secret to that verse. You are God. I am not. So, I'll stop today and acknowledge that and rest my soul under the shadow of your great wings. 
  

Psalm 63

A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

¹ You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary
    and beheld your power and your glory.
³ Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.

⁷ Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ I cling to you;
    your right hand upholds me.

⁹ Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
    they will go down to the depths of the earth.
¹⁰ They will be given over to the sword
    and become food for jackals.

¹¹ But the king will rejoice in God;
    all who swear by God will glory in him,
    while the mouths of liars will be silenced.