Where is the stop button?

I was blessed to enjoy coffee with a friend yesterday…
My mind said I was too busy to take the time… but, my soul knew I needed it. I think she felt the same way.

As we sat talking she shared how she wished there was a ‘stop’ button…
just to slow… things… down…
and be able to breath a bit.

In this life, there is so much to get done. Bills we have to take the time to pay. Work we need to do to generate the funds needed to pay those bills. Children that need our time. Meals that need to be prepared. Homes that need care so there are clean dishes to eat off of. Relationships that need our attention. Phone calls to make to get utilities fixed. Discipline that needs to be exercised with our children.

Seriously.

I could go on and on… and this is just a list of the ‘need to get done’ things… forget about the other things we actually WANT to do.

So – where is that ‘stop’ button?

Is this the life that our Lord wants me to live? Jam-packed… filled to the brim… with fulfilling obligations and just plowing through to ‘get it done’?

It can’t be, can it?

As I have been pondering this since sitting with my friend yesterday… this I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope!

“Be still… and know that I am God.”
(Psalm 47: 10)

Yes, Lord. But if I am not DOING. If I am not getting the things that need to be done, done – how will they get done? Surely, I am not to set aside these responsibilities just to be still?

As I have been pondering this… I have come to realize that which I already knew – but I simply needed to be reminded of it.

Sometimes we need to be still with our body. We need to sit. We need to be quiet before our Lord and focus on who He is. We need to literally sit and focus on KNOWING that He is God.

Sometimes what is needed is to be still with our mind.
But what does this look like?

I remember being completely overwhelmed with my first born. He struggled to eat and would just cry and cry… and I would just cry and cry… and everything else around me seemed to be falling apart too. I longed to focus on my Lord and to be able to enjoy being still… but, I had a newborn who needed me – not to mention the other responsibilities I had. I was sharing this with my mom and she encouraged me to simply put on praise and worship music… so that my mind could be still… so that my mind’s eye would gaze on my King, my Lord, while I struggled in this journey.

I have clung to that so many times.
Sometimes it is all I can do to put on music to fill my home with praise and worship…

Often times… when I do fill my home with praise and worship, I find that as I’m plowing through my must-do list for the day I am drawn into the thrown room of my King… and my body is sitting being still as well.

And you know what?

This King that we serve? He created time. He conquered death.

Just as when Abraham was bringing Isaac to the alter trusted that even though He was asked to sacrifice his son… He knew that the Lord was faithful to keep His promises. He trusted that His God could bring His son back from the dead to keep that promise if need be.

Our Lord isn’t bound by time.
He isn’t bound by death.
He isn’t bound by the things we are bound by on this earth.

There is NOTHING our God cannot do… and what He longs for most is for me to sit at His feet.

And so, I sit.
And I am still.
And I trust that He who created time… is MORE than ABLE to add minutes and hours to my day so that I can get what needs to be done, done.

Truly, it starts with being still.
THAT is my stop button.