.stillness.
.stillness. a quiet you feel. a quiet that, in the silence, resonates louder than any audible sound ever could.
I’m sitting on top of a mountain in Swaziland, overlooking a stunning view. It’s early morning – shortly after 6:00am. The sun is rising, painting the surrounding landscape with a myriad of pastel colors. Sky and mountains receive the dawning day, their shadows swept away by sparkling sunlight. Wrapped in my warm knit sweater, the boulder I sit on is cool to the touch, but it goes unnoticed, for something else captures my attention.
In the midst of the unveiling of the day, the beauty of the dawn, there is stillness.
No roosters crowing, no dogs barking, no insects buzzing, no voices talking, no sleeping bodies stirring, no wind blowing. Complete, utter silence. More than that:
.stillness.
I did not move, for I feared to snap the trembling thread. I did not think, for I did not want even my thoughts to intrude upon the moment.
For a rare moment, I was being, and not doing.
The depths of my heart were being spoken to by the depths of the Lord. The typical turmoil each new day brings was suddenly silenced by the stillness heavily cloaking me. Time stopped. And, the wonder and the beauty of the Lord became all of which I was aware.
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We go. We act. We do.
It is too much. We were created for more.
Not more going, not more acting, not more doing.
We were created for being.
And so, my dear friends, as Jim Elliott eloquently states, “Wherever you are, be all there.”
BE in your warm conversations with loved ones and strangers. BE in your deep reading of the Scriptures. BE in your menial chores of the day. BE in your vibrant dreaming of the future.
The depths of your heart cry out for the Living God. Do not exist in shallow living, where doing is more important than being, and miss out on the richness He gives.
Today, friends, be all there in the whole of every moment. Be. And embrace stillness of heart.
