SIT AND DO NOTHING…….REALLY?

 

I recently read in Lisa Harper’s book “The Sacrament of Happy” that there are a number of things we can do to increase our happiness.  The list goes like this:

1. Live (or work) in the moment.
2. Tap into your resilience.
3. Manage your energy.
4. Do nothing.
5. Show compassion to others.   

The list Lisa cited on page 59 of her book was from Dr. Emma Seppala – Science Director at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.  Out of the list, number 4 struck me as interesting.  All the other ideas on the list require doing, except for number 4.

Looking at my own life in the season I am in, I spend much time dog sitting and yes I do spend time here or there doing nothing.  I just sit and watch the pups, although watching is doing something, isn’t it! 

But I have to wonder, with our lives being so entrenched with cell phones and social media……..do we sit and do nothing, ever?  

I think that many of us are at a place where we cannot sit still!  Doing nothing ends very quickly with a reach for our phones.  However, the Bible tells us to do something different……..

PSALM 46:10 “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.”

I have thought about this much lately, and could doing nothing, being still, be our everything?  Could learning to be still, being intentional, be our every happiness?  Doing nothing and clearing the mind, closing your eyes and sitting very still…….is a good thing.  

Corrie Ten Boom said it in another way:

“Happiness isn’t something that depends on our surroundings – it’s something we make inside ourselves.”

When we sit still, an awareness is present, yes our focus turns inward – and our happiness is an awareness of our GOD and all that HE is!  Every good gift comes from the FATHER and sitting still just happens to be one of them.

I think we all have the view that sitting still is wasting time…….what if doing nothing, being still, is the only way we can ever know GOD deeply?  The act of sitting requires a stillness of body……what about our soul?  Our mind tends to wander and it races……I prefer that my mind races towards my LORD and away from all my troubles!  What about you?  Are you able to come to a stillness of mind as well as body? 

I think being still is the best of “doing nothing” we can do for ourselves.

Don’t you desire stillness?  To…….just…….stop?  Our Creator knows we need this…….when we do, our inner desire to know GOD increases, our inner happiness becomes a sacred happiness. 

The inner happiness we can all experience with being still……. leads us right to joy.  Peter said it best:

1 PETER 1: 8 “THOUGH YOU HAVE NOT SEEN HIM, YOU LOVE HIM. THOUGH YOU DO NOT NOW SEE HIM, YOU BELIEVE IN HIM AND REJOICE WITH JOY THAT IS INEXPRESSIBLE AND FILLED WITH GLORY, OBTAINING THE OUTCOME OF YOUR FAITH, THE SALVATION OF YOUR SOULS.”

The world tries to define happiness for us, don’t let it.  Go before your Father in Heaven and sit in reverence and awe, submit and be still.  Do nothing else!  Your thankfulness and joy will increase because you are being filled with the glory of HIS spirit!  Find time today to just…….be.  GOD woke you up this morning to be with HIM.  The LORD will meet you right there, gently and with all HIS abounding grace and love for you…….so…….just…….do the best of “doing nothing” and be still!

PSALM 37:7 “BE STILL BEFORE THE LORD AND WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM.”

ISAIAH 35: 10 “THEY WILL ENTER JERUSALEM WITH JOY, AND THEIR HAPPINESS WILL LAST FOREVER.  THEIR GLADNESS AND JOY WILL FILL THEM COMPLETELY, AND SORROW AND SADNESS WILL GO FAR AWAY.”