BE STILL AND KNOW

Everyone I know is constantly in a battle for time. Our schedules are jam-packed and yet we struggle to fit in one more thing. Deadlines loom over us, yet we take on one more job, sure that we can find the time. “If only there were twenty-five hours in a day,” we say. “I wish I could survive with less sleep.” Idleness may be the devil’s playground, but I’m not sure that these intensely over-scheduled lives are what God wants for us either.

A friend was frantically preparing for out-of-town guests one day. She had spent the morning vacuuming and scrubbing toilets, and her afternoon was filled with sweeping, mopping, and sanitizing the kitchen. Her ten-year-old daughter sat at a bar stool, watching her mother aggressively scrub the same spot on the counter over and over.

“Mom,” the girl said, “you’re going crazy. Chill out.” Then the girl read the sign that hung on the kitchen wall. “Be still. You’re not God.”

At that moment, my friend paused and let those words sink into her heart. She heard the accurate interpretation of Psalm 46:10. It’s one thing for her to know who God is. It’s a whole other to know that she is not God, which means that she cannot control anything around her. She can’t clean her home to the point of perfection, because perfection in humans is not attainable. We are not God.

So often, we fool ourselves into thinking that we actually are the god of our own lives. We think if we plan more efficiently, work a little harder, and sleep a little less, we will find the secret of a successful and happy life. The real secret is, the more we try to attain it on our own, the more we will fail.

When we spend our lives tirelessly doing and checking off boxes, we miss the opportunity to see God in our everyday, simple moments. Things like talking to a daughter instead of rubbing our hands raw with chemicals. Like quality time with an old friend. Like reading Scripture and letting God speak to us. Like sitting still and knowing that God is actually the one running the show.

Maria Riley

Maria Riley is a passionate Catholic writer and editor who loves volunteering when she’s not writing or mom-ing. She’s the author of a new Catholic children’s chapter book series: Adventures with the Saints (releasing Fall 2022). Visit her at MariaRileyAuthor.com or on social media @mariarileyauthor. She and her family live in Florida.