I can't sit still.  

    It's ingrained in me and I can't make it stop.  (Please, someone make it stop!) Not that I don't enjoy downtime, or vacations or the like.  But, if I'm at home and everyone has what they need, I'd much rather be doing something with my time than sitting still.  If I'm watching television, I'm also reading a book.  If I'm cooking dinner, I'm also unloading the dishes or folding laundry.  If I'm laying down with my kids at night to help them sleep, I'm also going through a writing idea in my mind.  

    I have an internal agenda that can get in the way of everything if I let it.  My to-do list is to be outdone by no other than a computer repair manual.  It goes on for pages and is updated daily.  I have to literally keep myself in check constantly, making sure that what I am doing is what God would have me to do, not what I feel I should do.  

    It seems as if my mind is on a 20 hour schedule that my 16 hour body struggles to keep up with.  Even when I force myself to stop "doing", my mind keeps at it long into the night. And I find that it is often during my busiest times that I realize I'm listening too much to my own voice and not enough to God's.  

    Why can't I just get out of my own way?

    I love the words in Psalm 46:  "Be still, and know that I am God!" I like the image of that.  Being still.  Letting God take over.  Having someone else carry the load for a change.  But is God asking us to be still so that He can do all of the work, or is He asking us to stop in order to pay attention?

    In Exodus 14, God led the people of Israel towards the Red Sea and instructed them to camp beside the shore.  Then He hardened Pharoh's heart to the point that he decided to chase after the very slaves that he had just freed.  As Pharoah approached them, the Isralites began crying out to Moses saying "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?  What have you done to us?"  In response, Moses told them "Don't be afraid.  Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.  The Lord himself will fight for you.  Just stay calm."  That would have sounded great to me.  Just hang out here, let God take care of your needs.

    But, as they were waiting on the Lord to move, He said to Moses "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!"  It was only then that Moses raised his staff and the Red Sea parted.  It was only after their action, their part in the plan, that this miraculous work of God took place.

    I love this part of the story.  It shakes me up.  It makes me realize that although God loves us and has promised to take care of us, our relationship with him is not passive.  He calls us to play a part in His plan.  "Why are you crying out to me?" He says.  "Tell the people to get moving!"  Get a move on, so His work can be completed.

    The "being still" isn't so much that He wants us to physically still our bodies, as He wants us to still our racing minds, our need for control, our unending to-do list that not only can distract us from what He is trying to do, but can keep us from taking our part in His plan for us.  We are directed to "Be still, and know that I am God" because it is only in our stillness that we can see that what is being accomplished in our lives is not of our own doing.  Though we play a part in His plan, we can not control it, or manipulate it, or delegate it to a list.

    God is honored when we allow Him to work His will in our lives.  When we allow Him to do the things for us that meet His agenda, not our own.  When we let Him use us in the way He wants to, rather than to just sit back and hope that He acts on our behalf.

    Yes.  The Isralites needed to still themselves from the probable chaos that was going on in their camp.  Yes, they needed to refocus and realize that they were God's people and that He was with them.  BUT.  They had to take action in His plan.  They had to get up and move!
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    As the holidays draw nearer and your calendar gets squeezed, don't forget to be still.  Don't forget the purpose of this season or the miracle that God has laid before us through the story of Christ.  Take part in His story this Christmas.  Be a blessing to others.  Show the love of God to someone in need.  Not because it's on your list.  Not because you feel pressure.  But, because God has placed you somewhere in the wilderness of life, poised to take part in His plan like no one else can.  Be still enough to realize it when your turn comes. Then... get moving!