Post 11: To see from the still place

The Notes of Rest Fellowship

Hi everyone,

Today is my birthday: 33 the Jesus year! I’m so thankful to celebrate it with y’all. My birthday is always a chance to be still and reflect on God’s goodness, and so today I want to think about the relationship between Salvation, Sabbath, and Stillness. There is a way to live with focus on God that helps us find stillness all around us.

By stillness I mean centered attention, a lack of needless movement. To some extent, stillness is impossible. We live amidst perpetual movement at the atomic level. But we can practice calming our bodies and our souls, stilling ourselves. It is vital we do so, as Howard Thurman reminds us:

“It is good to make an end of movement, to come to a point of rest, a place of pause. There is some strange magic in activity, in keeping at it, in continuing to be involved in many things that excite the mind and keep the hours swiftly passing. But it is a deadly magic; one is not wise to trust it with too much confidence.” - Howard Thurman

What strange magic tempts you to keep moving when you’re called to actually be still?

One reason stillness is important is it allows our vulnerabilities and others’ to come into view. The strange magic of activity can distract us from attending to just these parts of ourselves and others. So much unfolds in us when we grow still.