Sitting Still

More than four decades ago I bought a piano – my childhood dream. Unfortunately, after just a couple years I gave it up, although I don’t remember why. Three weeks ago, I got the strongest urge to give the piano another try. This time I had a specific goal. I wanted to learn to play worship music – love songs just between the Lord and me. So I bought a piano(!) and an adult beginner’s book, and I’m re-learning how play. I’m beginning to believe I’ll also learn much about my walk with Jesus as I...

Bible stories are full of people’s names ~ and also leave many people unnamed. It’s a curious story-telling technique in a book so packed with details. Please join me in looking at one of the most significant stories of all time to see who was named, who was not, and what difference that might make to your day

My friends, usually I write to encourage you with a truth I’ve recently been thinking about. Today I face a dreaded intruder and write to you as I begin to process the unavoidable pain that burst into our family circle. The coronavirus opened the door and walked right in, stealing the life of someone I know. I wondered if it might dare to come that close, or as I hoped might happen -- that it would stay in the news and not in my family. Come sit still with me today and talk about what we can do...

The community saw a dishonest tax collector when they looked at Levi, as we learn in Luke 5. But when Jesus looked at him, He saw not a thief, but a man with a pen, a man who would go on to become His disciple and an author, Matthew. How does Jesus see you? Come sit still with me today and let’s talk about who God created us to be and how we can act that out in the days to come.

“How much news are you watching?” It’s a common question among my circle of friends. It seems to lead to an easy explanation about our state of anxiety. More news = more anxiety. Less news = more peace. Have you found a practical way to handle your fear? These days I’m finding a measure of peace in the midst of it all by writing out my prayers. Come sit still with me today and let’s talk for a few minutes about how a prayer journal can help calm your fears.

Sometimes God gives us opportunities to see things more clearly even in the worst of times – hard, sad, scary times like we are in now. “Wisdom is seeing things from God’s point of view,” Adrian Rogers says. Come sit still with me today and join me in some thoughts about a possible vision correction.

This season is full of different -- for our nation, for the world and for us. One day our lives will return to something more familiar, but how do we live in the meantime? Come sit still with me today. I have some ideas that might break through a hard – or boring – time for you in this season. Your meantime could become one of those spiritual mountain tops you never forget.

How easily we look at the world from one perspective: our own. Babies, of course, always have only one point of view – theirs. Good Moms tend to see the world from that same frame – by choice or necessity. “I’ll do whatever my baby needs.” Many of us adults have a tendency to move in that same self-centered direction hoping, even sometimes expecting, the world to bend to our wishes. While many of the elders in our world may want that option, they often don’t have it.

Do you ever experience a sleepless night? Or perhaps you fall asleep but wake in the hours of darkness only to find no path back to sound sleep. Can something good come from that dark alone? I am blessed by usually sleeping well. In fact, if I maintain a regular sleep pattern, I can count on seven hours of deep sleep. But I admit I don’t always adhere to what I know are my best sleeping hours. And I pay a price the next day.

We call our getaway retreats with God: “Dare to Be Still.” It’s a dare to believe that when we draw near to God, He draws near to us. (James 4:8) Then recently, a wise woman whose life and faith I admire told me that many who heard about these retreats may interpret STILLNESS to mean NOTHING. I take responsibility for that misunderstanding. I realized I needed to give a fuller explanation of what happens at these unique weekends.