Written by: Micah Hilbert
Throughout the last few years, I’ve learned a few things the hard way.:
Number one: Check all of your pockets before you wash your laundry.
(Seriously though, I’ve ruined waaay too many of mine and my husband’s clothes with undesirable pen-marks because of my own failure to be adequately thorough when sorting the laundry.)
Number TWO: God speaks to us in a STILL, SMALL, voice.
Now, the reason that I say that I learned this lesson the HARD way, is because I did.
For my entire college career, I spent all of my energy to try and please those around me. I volunteered for every church activity to prove to everyone that I was a LEADER. I spent hours trying to DO-DO-DO all the things that might make others love me more. Not to mention, I was simultaneously working multiple jobs and going to college.
I’d engage in ministry opportunities in the name of Jesus, simply to build up my own spiritual resume in order to have a bulkier list of things that I was responsible for. I’d take on more hours at work simply to build rapport with my boss and appear like a hard-worker, even though I KNEW I needed rest. I’d say yes to opportunities that were NOT from the Lord, simply to add another notch in the belt of my own pride.
I was busy as all-get-out and I was PROUD of it.
But, you know what?
The whole time, I was ignoring the Lord.
The whole time, I could feel Him pulling me to come to Him, to be quiet, and to simply BE STILL.
The whole time, God was whispering to me:
“Be still.”
I’d spend all day working, serving, grinding, and the Lord simply whispered:
“Be still.”
I hated it.
I wanted nothing more than for his annoying voice to stop badgering me. I wanted to continue on.
Yet, I found over and OVER, that the only time that I truly GREW in my relationship with Him was during the moments in which I was STILL.
It was in these moments that the decisions of life seemed to be just a little bit smaller in comparison to His ultimate, larger-than-life, plan.
It was in these moments that my life and the direction that I THOUGHT that I wanted it to go ultimately changed.
Every Tuesday evening, I set aside 2 hours before bed for a Sabbath.
I didn’t do homework. I didn’t answer text messages. I didn’t mindlessly scroll Instagram.
Instead, I simply WAS.
I’d allow the Lord to lead my time with Him with NO interruptions.
Sometimes, during these 2 hours, I’d paint. Sometimes, I’d watch my favorite old-timey movie. Sometimes, I’d paint my nails.
I’d be quiet and listen to Jesus.
I stopped only coming to Him when I needed something, and I instead sought to KNOW Him better.
It was in THESE moments that the Lord romanced my heart. I began to hear His voice. I began to be quiet enough to finally make out the words that He had been telling me for so long.
“Be still.”
So, friend, what would it look like for you to be still?
Often, this requires that we SHUT-UP every once in awhile, and STOP trying to do everything ourselves.
It means that we press pause on our lives long enough for Him to actually SPEAK with us.
It means taking a day of rest to simply be LOVED by the God who so intricately and lovingly created us.
So, no matter WHERE you’re at in this journey of self-discovery that constitutes our college-years, I challenge you to do the ONE thing that you probably suck at:
Be still.
Psalm 46:10
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”