Posted by From a young age, I was able to sit still and be quiet for hours on end as long as I was coloring or painting or drawing. My parents were able to give me creative things to do and they could leave me all alone for hours, knowing I’d be perfectly content with my art projects. As I got older I became more active and it became much harder for me to sit still for long periods of time. My love for stillness and quiet quickly gave way to busyness, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing.
In the Bible, Jesus was a busy guy. Once word about him and his good deeds spread throughout Israel people would flock to him. People would come from all over the place, bringing their sick to him to be healed. He consistently had a crowd gathered around him, everywhere he went. If that were us, we would’ve been addicted to the fame, but Jesus knew there was something much more important: his time with God.
Luke 5: 12-16 records a typical day in the life of Jesus.
“One day in one of the villages there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus he fell down before him in prayer and said, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”
Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there his skin was smooth, the leprosy gone.
Jesus instructed him, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed self to the priest, along with the offering ordered by Moses. Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” But the man couldn’t keep it to himself, and the word got out. Soon a large crowd of people had gathered to listen and be healed of their ailments. As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.”
Over and over again it’s recorded that Jesus went out of his way to be alone. Think about this: he was fully God and fully man and he needed to draw away from people and be alone with himself and the Father. Jesus knew his relationship and time alone with the Lord were far more important than the fame his works brought. He was aware that his alone time was what enabled him to do all of the amazing miracles he did.
We think busyness will equal fulfillment when, in reality, fulfillment begins with stillness.
To some degree we’ve all bought into the lie that our busyness will bring us joy or fulfillment or make us feel successful. In what areas have you bought that lie? What would it look like for you to step back from that busyness and find stillness instead? I believe if we could find stillness and savor those precious moments with God, our lives could radically change. A little stillness goes a long way.
Work in Progress 