OK, that title makes me sound either verbally challenged or a bit over-medicated. (I did just get back from having a root canal…hmmm)  But I’m referring, of course, to the difference between doing versus being.  And even though this seems like it shouldn’t be too hard to understand, I seem to get things turned around pretty easily.

This reality struck me today when I was at home alone for a couple of hours- doing some reading and studying.  After a while, I became aware of the simple sound of… quiet.  No TV or music filling in the empty spaces, no hum of background noise.  Just quiet, peaceful.  I savored it, an unexpected but welcome companion.

But those moments also made me realize how much I’ve allowed myself to become defined by activity, by a compulsive need to be doing something.  Gotta get things done, checked off the list.  Keep going, keep moving.  Like a hamster on a wheel- keep in motion on a road to… anywhere?  I know better than this, don’t I?  Apparently if I don’t make the deliberate and sometimes ruthless choice to slow down and simply be- be with God, be still, be quiet, just be– then I lose my bearings.  Urgency replaces priority.  Doing trumps being.

Today was a good reminder- and one that I need to keep coming back to.  Good thing I wrote it down.  Actually, God wrote it down first.  “BE STILL, and KNOW that I am God (Psalm 46:10)