All I Seek

Flickr Photo Credit: electrictuesday

I stare blankly at the squares in front of me. Each one blurs into the next and I can’t help but wonder what could possibly need to be added to this madness. Still, the pen in hand was no accident. There is something I am missing on here, yet after looking at all the ink already spilled, I can’t imagine what it was.

It was something I had vowed never to do. Be a slave to a calendar. Fill the squares full intentionally. And the older I get the more it becomes vividly clear. It takes a conscious effort to simplify. Streamline ones schedule so that a calendar becomes artwork and nothing more.

A chuckle escapes from my lips as I put the pen away. For I recall just last night praying for peace. Asking God point-blank the secret to achieving stillness. It’s been a pattern lately, me asking questions He’s already told me the answers to. And I’m starting to see why it’s taking them so long to sink in. I haven’t made the space for them on this schedule-genie clinging to the wall….

~~~~~~~~~~

Friends, a few weeks ago I received an email from a reader/fellow blogger, Diana. She shared her heart with me and showed me how we are striving for the same thing: To be still and simply know…He is…

Diana asked if I could share with her readers what is on my heart and I humbly and prayerfully said yes.

Will you please join me over at Diana’s beautiful blog to read the rest of this post? I’ll share with you the answers He gave me on how to be still and know. And show you how I plan to achieve it. Simply click on her blog title below:

Be Still and Know

If you have the time, I would love to know you stopped by. Please feel free to share with me how you seek, see, know, and savor your Redeemer. I’d love to hear.

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki

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His Waiting Room

Her long fingernails tap in allegro. Encouraging the receptionist to type faster. An exaggerated sigh follows each question raised and it becomes obvious to the entire room. Patience and courtesy are not on her to-do list today.

The older gentleman reaches for the newspaper as his wife frantically searches her purse. From the corner of my eye I catch him patting her knee softly. Assuring her everything is going to be alright. He offers what he can to her nerves, asking if he should follow or stay behind.  And I witness love right there as she suggests he wait here in the sun’s warm rays.

It was only after my oldest was born that I grew to enjoy this room of waiting. The only place where time is not yours to control.  And as the sea of others ebb and flow through every corridor, I allow rest to warm my soul. I don’t pull out my phone. I resist the urge to flip through ads. This is my time to spend in communion with Him. For we have a lot to talk about.

You may know He’s asked me to let go. To come undone. To retreat back to my natural state. Where joy is given freely, never grasped. What He hasn’t told me is how. And just like the allegro woman, I want to know. Now.

Words I read recently come to mind and I can’t help but grin at how timely this book found me. God uses these portions to remind me where I need to begin:

“What keeps many of us from growing is not sin, but speed…
We lose God in the blurred landscape as we rush…
We don’t struggle with the Bible but with the clock.
We’re drained because we live too fast.
Speed damages our soul…
Jesus came to give us rest.”
Michael Yaconelli, excerpts from Messy Spirituality

I find myself now in the same place of the dear elderly woman. Frantically searching for how to achieve life’s perfect tempo. Digging through my mental calendar at what I could cut out, slow down, put on pause.

When it hits me hard, knocking what breath I had left right out of my lungs.

Friends, He shared the secret with me last year. I talked about it in This Post when I began researching the origin of these verses:

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
and
“The Lord will fight for you and you need only to be still.”
Exodus 14:14

Do you remember what I discovered while researching the Hebrew word for “Be Still”?

• It meant to let go.

• To release.

• To become weak.

My mind whirls with the possibility that He has been sharing the first step to this process for a while now.

Suggesting all I need to do is turn my heart into His waiting room.

A room I’ve grown to enjoy. Where I give my time to another to control. Where I can simply be as others around me ebb and flow. There I can rest when I am weak. Release. Let go. Receive all He has in store for me. Rise when I am called…

How about you? What does your waiting room look like? How do you let go to become still? I’d love to hear.

Sharing with you moments of gratitude I treasured this week in His waiting room:

• God loves us even when we don’t want Him to love us
• My hubby having a day off mid-week
• Gluten-free peanut butter cookies
• Reading “Messy Spirituality” It was a quick read and knocked my socks off. I’ll have to talk more about it.
• God refuses to exclude me
• My sister-in-law gifting me with new-to-me sandals
• Brilliant rainbow after the storm
• Seeing my nephew graduate
• My moment in the waiting room. As He invited me to stay.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki

Linking to:

Be Still and Know

Last week got away from me. I didn’t want it to. I don’t even know where it went. (It wasn’t all in vain.) But after reflecting on the week, this has been laid heavy on my heart:

For years I considered this verse to be more of a meditational verse. A reflection of His glory. I thought, if I could just put life in slow motion for a minute to reflect on Him, I would know He has everything under control.

I’m always striving to simplify. Slow down life’s pace. Be still amongst the tide. The noise. The drama.

To be still and simply know…

I got to thinking, I often see Exodus 14:14 associated with the verse above.

And lately, I’ve been wondering if I fully understand what the Lord means by being still. This Exodus verse makes me feel like there is more to it than mere meditation. So I looked up the Hebrew verb and its meaning for both verses (and found both of these instances use the same verb). I read a number of commentaries on this very subject and here’s what I discovered:

To “be still” stems from the verb rapha which means

• to be weak
• to let go
• to release

It doesn’t mean to slow down, to stop doing, to reflect.

Friends, it’s about trust.

It’s about giving up trusting in ourselves in order to
experience the full glory of God’s all-sufficiency.

Complete surrender.

• For when we are weak, He is strong.
• When we let go, He carries us.
• When we release, He can redirect.

When we decrease, He will increase. 

And the teenage girl from Nazareth we simply know as Mary
knew this well.
So well she lived it even when every fiber in her being was telling her otherwise.

I’m fairly certain the teenage me would have said “um, thanks but no thanks” to becoming pregnant before I was even of marrying age let alone not even married. I would have reminded God this act would disgrace my family and could potentially ruin my future. My dreams. My ambitions. After all, how could being involved in something so morally unacceptable be filled with God’s glory?!

I wouldn’t have been so agreeable.
I highly doubt I would have surrendered completely.
I would have argued a bit.

Oh but I’m striving to change that.

Because who am I that I might suppress God’s glory.
Who am I to doubt He has everything under control?

Friends, I know how this game of life ends.
God wins.
That’s the only detail I need to be concerned with.

This Christmas season, I’m going to strive to completely surrender. To get out of the way of my own life. To live the life He has intended for me. For it’s full of grandeur. It’s saturated with His glory. It’s certain to be better than anything I could ever imagine.

Yes, I will be still and know. For God is on my side. God loves me so much He gave up His own perfect child. For me. One who’s still striving.

Will you join me in experiencing the full glory of God’s all-sufficiency?

How about you? How do you become still? I’d love to hear. 

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

Simply striving,

Nikki

Am linking this up with:

The Grace Cafe  , The Internet Cafe and