I struggle to sit still. Not when I’m watching the Food Network and falling asleep. Then I can sit still. Not when I’m distracting myself with a social media loop.

No. I struggle to sit still when I need to heal from hecticness, when I need to dig deep into what I’m learning, when I need to write.

At those moments, I remember everything else I think that someone else thinks that I should be doing. I write a sentence that I know will make me have to think hard about the next sentence and instead of sitting still to write, I check to see if someone has something more important over on Facebook or if someone likes me on Twitter. Ten minutes later, I am still trying to write that next sentence.

In those moments, some people look at me and say, “Be still and know that He is God.” Which I appreciate. Until I remind them that the songwriter wasn’t teaching mindfulness or sitting with God in friendly silence. Those words are written to nations who have been at war, nations that God is telling in his best Dad voice, “stop fighting or I’ll stop the car.”

And then he does. That’s the story in Psalm 46.

As I writing this, I just looked over at the love seat, where Nancy sits in the morning drinking coffee. Where in fact she will likely be sitting when she reads these words on Friday morning. If God were sitting there at the moment, I’d probably be still. Not in the “stop the car” way, cowering. And not in the “please please please fix my friend” way. More in the, “speak Lord, for your servant hears” way. Or maybe in the “do you have anything for me to write today?” way.

I hope you have a chance to sit still this weekend. Better, I hope that you make time to sit still, drink coffee, and listen.