Mike BonemIs stillness on your bingo card of New Year’s resolutions/goals/intentions? It wouldn’t have been on mine if Tish Harrison Warren had not gotten my attention:
When I feel the emptiness – the loneliness, meaninglessness, futility, and loss – present even in my very good life, I rush to fill it. Winds of emptiness echo in a hollow moment of my day, and I run to distraction. … Advent recalls that the emptiness in the world and our own lives can’t be sated with hurry, buying power, social media likes, fame, success, politics, or even religiosity. We wait with Mary, with Elizabeth, with all of creation, for our emptiness to be filled (Advent).
Even though this is written for Advent, she’s addressing a year-round issue. When is the last time you were still and quiet without reaching for the endless distraction devices that sit in our pockets or at our fingertips? We may think we’re being productive, but often we’re just trying to fill emptiness.
While our devices, and even our distractions, have a place in our lives, they often deprive us of something vital: time for reflection. God uses quiet moments of reflection to generate new insights. And those insights can propel us to make important shifts in our thinking and our behavior. If you don’t believe this, think about the many biblical figures who heard from God once they were still, or the familiar words of Psalm 46:10 (“Be still and know that I am God.”)
You may think stillness means silent retreats or “days apart.” These are valuable, but the good news is that embracing stillness doesn’t require more time in our busy schedules. It just requires changing what we do with the time we have. We can leave the phone in our pockets while standing in a checkout line. We can drive or workout without listening to a podcast or music. We can take a short walk outdoors in between meetings or tasks.
I know that most resolutions are broken before the end of January. But if you allow yourself the luxury of stillness, you may find God filling the emptiness and realize that you don’t want to live without it.
