Water is the best therapist, especially when the prescribed treatment is to float on it.
I rarely go to the pool when the beach is an option, but it was later in the day and just too hot to warrant me driving around for a half hour, fighting for parking. So I settled for the pool in my apartment complex, got in, laid belly-up, and began to float. Peaceful. Stillness. Just me, the sound of my own breathing magnified by the water around my ears, and my thoughts.
Now I know this is absolute silliness, but for some reason, ever since I was little and I went in the pool to float with my eyes closed, I would get a sudden flash of fear as an image filled my mind of a shark coming to eat me from the deep end. At 24 years of age, this same fear washed over me like a tidal wave, not a second after I closed my eyes. It was gone as quickly as it came because of course, I swatted it away with my mental "irrational thought" swatter, but when I tried to return to my relaxed state of mind, more thoughts took the opportunity to get their foot in the door, as well.
I would go back and forth between a feeling of ethereal peacefulness and sudden terror as stupid thoughts entered my mind like, "Do you realize how vulnerable you are right now to anything and everything, floating with your face up? ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!" or "The only thing keeping you from falling into concrete is water....FREAK OUT, NOW!!" And the longer I stayed still with my eyes closed, the more I was reduced to the most primal battle of the mind: to give into brain clutter, or to maintain my peace.
The times in which you are still are the times your mind is most bombarded.
In our culture, the concept of sitting still and doing absolutely nothing is extremely frowned upon. After all, how can you be productive if you're not doing anything? Or thinking about anything? Surely God frowns upon this as well, for "idle hands are the devil's playthings," right?
Wrong.
God's main goal for us has never been busyness. He's not concerned with what we can do for Him; He simply wants us to be with Him. Even more, He wants us to know Him. His directions are extremely clear on how we accomplish this: "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). It sounds so backwards, but if you really think about it, it makes perfect sense: You can't really get to know someone if you're only doing things for them, and you certainly won't get to know them by doing all the talking (sound like "prayer" to you?). The only way to even begin to know someone's heart is to give them your full and undivided attention and listen to them.
Being still is so crucial to the point that without it, we will totally wither up. John 17:3 says, "Now, this is eternal life: that they may know you..." And Hosea 4:6 says that God's people perish because of lack of knowledge. Both the Greek and Hebrew words for the root word "know" in these verses literally refers to an intimate knowledge of God through experience. How can we possibly develop an intimate knowledge of God if our minds are so consumed with nonsense?
The enemy's mission is simple: to steal, kill, and destroy. Doesn't it only make sense that if the key to knowing God and living life in abundance is stillness, that the enemy would come full force against our ability to be still?
As I floated there, contemplating all of these things and fighting off all kinds of mental junk, I realized something else: the first emotion that rose to the surface to invade my peace was fear.
Fear is literally the antithesis of God, because God Himself is love and there can be no fear in love (1 John 4:18). So what better tactic for the devil use to distract us from knowing God than to fill our minds with fear, the furthest thing from God Himself?
I honestly believe that the biggest fear keeping the people of God from being still before Him is literally the fear of being still. Silly, right? But it's true! If you were being honest with yourself, how comfortable are you with the thought of sitting in your room for half an hour, doing and saying and THINKING nothing? How about an hour? How about a few hours? How about not praying or putting on worship music or even opening your Bible?
Are you squirming at the thought, yet?
Most of us are afraid to do nothing when we go to spend time with God because we feel like we aren't pleasing Him by being idle. We think we need to at least be praying for someone or thanking God for something, telling Him something or asking Him to tell us something. The idea of complete and utter stillness is superbly offensive to our minds, and why wouldn't it be when we've got a culture that's always on the go and an enemy who doesn't want us to give God the time of day? But we've got to get over it and push passed this if we want the full promise of peace and abundant life that Jesus paid for.
I could literally talk about this for hours because God has given me such a passion for this topic, but I won't. However, I will say that when we become a people who know who we are, that we are sons and daughters and don't need to do a stinkin' thing to gain God's favor or approval or grace, we will be able to confidently sit before Abba with no striving and no agenda and simply enjoy the pleasures of His presence, fear-free! And ironically, the best way to find out who we are is to to know Him, which comes by--you guessed it--being still! Isn't God hilarious? ;)
I remember going to the beach with my husband and trying to teach him how to float. It was funny because no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to stay above the water. And to be honest, I really couldn't explain very well how to do it. I just relaxed and it happened for me.
The thing about floating is that the less still you are and the more you try to float, the more you'll find yourself submerged. And it's the same way with the Lord; striving will only make you sink faster.
So stop trying so hard. Don't be afraid to do nothing; you never know what God may be trying to give you if you'd only sit still long enough for Him to show you.
Float on, my friends! Float on :)
<3 Hali
I rarely go to the pool when the beach is an option, but it was later in the day and just too hot to warrant me driving around for a half hour, fighting for parking. So I settled for the pool in my apartment complex, got in, laid belly-up, and began to float. Peaceful. Stillness. Just me, the sound of my own breathing magnified by the water around my ears, and my thoughts.
Now I know this is absolute silliness, but for some reason, ever since I was little and I went in the pool to float with my eyes closed, I would get a sudden flash of fear as an image filled my mind of a shark coming to eat me from the deep end. At 24 years of age, this same fear washed over me like a tidal wave, not a second after I closed my eyes. It was gone as quickly as it came because of course, I swatted it away with my mental "irrational thought" swatter, but when I tried to return to my relaxed state of mind, more thoughts took the opportunity to get their foot in the door, as well.
I would go back and forth between a feeling of ethereal peacefulness and sudden terror as stupid thoughts entered my mind like, "Do you realize how vulnerable you are right now to anything and everything, floating with your face up? ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!" or "The only thing keeping you from falling into concrete is water....FREAK OUT, NOW!!" And the longer I stayed still with my eyes closed, the more I was reduced to the most primal battle of the mind: to give into brain clutter, or to maintain my peace.
The times in which you are still are the times your mind is most bombarded.
In our culture, the concept of sitting still and doing absolutely nothing is extremely frowned upon. After all, how can you be productive if you're not doing anything? Or thinking about anything? Surely God frowns upon this as well, for "idle hands are the devil's playthings," right?
Wrong.
God's main goal for us has never been busyness. He's not concerned with what we can do for Him; He simply wants us to be with Him. Even more, He wants us to know Him. His directions are extremely clear on how we accomplish this: "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). It sounds so backwards, but if you really think about it, it makes perfect sense: You can't really get to know someone if you're only doing things for them, and you certainly won't get to know them by doing all the talking (sound like "prayer" to you?). The only way to even begin to know someone's heart is to give them your full and undivided attention and listen to them.
Being still is so crucial to the point that without it, we will totally wither up. John 17:3 says, "Now, this is eternal life: that they may know you..." And Hosea 4:6 says that God's people perish because of lack of knowledge. Both the Greek and Hebrew words for the root word "know" in these verses literally refers to an intimate knowledge of God through experience. How can we possibly develop an intimate knowledge of God if our minds are so consumed with nonsense?
The enemy's mission is simple: to steal, kill, and destroy. Doesn't it only make sense that if the key to knowing God and living life in abundance is stillness, that the enemy would come full force against our ability to be still?
As I floated there, contemplating all of these things and fighting off all kinds of mental junk, I realized something else: the first emotion that rose to the surface to invade my peace was fear.
Fear is literally the antithesis of God, because God Himself is love and there can be no fear in love (1 John 4:18). So what better tactic for the devil use to distract us from knowing God than to fill our minds with fear, the furthest thing from God Himself?
I honestly believe that the biggest fear keeping the people of God from being still before Him is literally the fear of being still. Silly, right? But it's true! If you were being honest with yourself, how comfortable are you with the thought of sitting in your room for half an hour, doing and saying and THINKING nothing? How about an hour? How about a few hours? How about not praying or putting on worship music or even opening your Bible?
Are you squirming at the thought, yet?
Most of us are afraid to do nothing when we go to spend time with God because we feel like we aren't pleasing Him by being idle. We think we need to at least be praying for someone or thanking God for something, telling Him something or asking Him to tell us something. The idea of complete and utter stillness is superbly offensive to our minds, and why wouldn't it be when we've got a culture that's always on the go and an enemy who doesn't want us to give God the time of day? But we've got to get over it and push passed this if we want the full promise of peace and abundant life that Jesus paid for.
I could literally talk about this for hours because God has given me such a passion for this topic, but I won't. However, I will say that when we become a people who know who we are, that we are sons and daughters and don't need to do a stinkin' thing to gain God's favor or approval or grace, we will be able to confidently sit before Abba with no striving and no agenda and simply enjoy the pleasures of His presence, fear-free! And ironically, the best way to find out who we are is to to know Him, which comes by--you guessed it--being still! Isn't God hilarious? ;)
I remember going to the beach with my husband and trying to teach him how to float. It was funny because no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to stay above the water. And to be honest, I really couldn't explain very well how to do it. I just relaxed and it happened for me.
The thing about floating is that the less still you are and the more you try to float, the more you'll find yourself submerged. And it's the same way with the Lord; striving will only make you sink faster.
So stop trying so hard. Don't be afraid to do nothing; you never know what God may be trying to give you if you'd only sit still long enough for Him to show you.
Float on, my friends! Float on :)
<3 Hali
This was nice. Very deep and very close to home. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it! I always get excited when God uses something I said to hit home at just the right time :)
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