Still
If there was one word to describe my life, along with most other people’s, it’d be busy. While I was in school, classes dominated most of my time, along with practicing, studying, ensembles, church, concerts, gigs, intramurals, hanging out with friends, eating, ping-pong, Refuge, Kappa Chi, work-study, Walmart runs, and squeezing in some sleep when I decided that it was more important than going to Waffle House at 3 in the morning. With my first semester of college being knocked out, I’m back home for majority of the summer. I’ll be working part-time, playing some random gigs, going to a few weddings, and hanging out with friends. So far, these past two and a half weeks of summer have been uneventful compared to college life.
For awhile, I didn’t know what to do with myself. The sharp increase in the amount of sleep was much appreciated, but other than that, it was really weird not having something to keep me constantly occupied. During school, I could always either be catching up homework, practicing piano or bass, or take a quick power nap to help recover from the past week of tests. At home, there hasn’t been that sense of urgency. There was actually some time to sit and relax.
There I said it, relax. i.e: chill out, do nothing, take a breather, sit on the bench, ride the pine. I have discovered that I’m addicted to being active. When I do nothing, I feel awkward. The other day, nobody was home (a rare occurrence being a triplet), and I plopped myself on the couch. No tv, no laptop, no iPod, no books. Just me and my empty living room. I thought to myself, “Wow, I’m really doing absolutely nothing. How productive. I should finally learn how to cook or something.”
“Wait a minute.”
“This is actually kinda nice. I have time to think.” I could contemplate what we were going to eat for dinner, were the Rangers going to crap out right before the post-season like always, why God ever thought mosquitoes would be a good on Earth, and why was I not doing this more often. It really was an amazing thing. I was doing nothing, and was actually taking time to make sure that was the case. I tried it again the next day, this time next my to my bed. Yet again, amazing results. There wasn’t a whole lot I thought about, but what I took from it was that it made me more relaxed, clear-minded, and focused. After all this I probed at myself and thought, why haven’t I been this methodical when I take time in God’s word? When I took time to be alone with God at Ouachita, it was usually squeezed between two classes or real late at night when I was tired of studying. This made me think, alright Michael, you’re taking tenfold the amount of time you spend developing the talents you have than the amount of time you put into having an intimate, distraction-free talk with the man, whom you call Lord, that gave those talents to you?
That’s way messed up.
So, recently, as in the past two weeks, I have been dissecting my days, and setting apart time to be absolutely still. Of course, I want most of it to be exclusively dedicated to listening to God and spending time soaking in His word, but I have also found that taking time to simply do nothing helps tremendously also. Check out Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” It is much easier to see how huge, powerful, and gracious God is when you take time to do it.
In all of this, I’m encouraging you to try this: do nothing. Start with about 5 minutes. Sit in a chair, lay on floor, make a hammock, do whatever. Try not to fall asleep, and just sit. At first it may seem pointless and boring, but give it a little while. Many activities during this may include: yawning, frequently changing positions, praying, cracking your knuckles, and feeling like a caterpillar. I’d like to hear if this helps anyone; it has really helped me put some things in perspective and more simply, chill out. I am by no means an expert on the subject of relaxation, and I’m definitely not saying I’m the most productive person of all-time and never ever slack off, but it’s been really nice to set aside the time to just think, listen, and grow.
-MKC
