What I did for Summer Vacation

Anyone else remember having to tell what you did over the summer when school started back? I went to a small school growing up, and by small I mean 38 people in my class small. I had several teachers that really made us do the classic tell the class what you did over summer break. My usual thing was went to the beach with my parents. Fun fact about me is I don’t like the beach. Sand is the worst, it’s super hot, and I don’t like salt water. That pretty much makes the beach the worst. It is better than when my dad decided we were going to Arkansas for summer vacation. Nothing against Arkansas there are some really nice people there, but the main scenery I took in were pine trees and fence posts. We went to a state park where you could dig for diamonds. A middle school boy isn’t into digging in the Arkansas dirt for diamonds.

Well life moves on, and I’m grown now so no one can make me dig for diamonds or sit on a beach I don’t want to be on. I get to decide what my vacation is. Last week my family went to Alabama to see extended family and friends. We stayed in a house on Lake Wedowee. We fished, fed ducks, saw family and friends we haven’t seen in a long time, and just relaxed. I’m a natural night owl, and Marie and Charlee aren’t. When everyone else went to bed I would sit outside and watch the opossums, armadillos, and raccoons run across the yard. It was nice to just sit in the quiet. That’s what I learned from my vacation. We need to just sit and be quiet sometimes. Our world has become so connected that we find ourselves constantly bombarded by information, entertainment, and we are always in contact with everyone.

This makes it hard to step away. Psalm 46 has a very famous verse in it. It’s verse 10. It says, “Be still and know I am the Lord.” Nice sentiment, but try and be still sometime. I have a hard time with it. I find myself constantly with something to do, someone to talk to, or something to watch or read. I think we need some more being still. I think we need some more being quiet. I think we need to unplug from all the devices. The context of Psalm 46 is key to this idea. When you read the rest of the chapter it has some pretty crazy things packed into it. The author talks about mountains falling into the sea, and he talks about kingdoms crumbling. This imagery is showing a person with the world falling in around them, and they get to the point that they are just sitting there at peace. They are just still, and they are thinking about God. I really thought about that while I was sitting outside in the peace. I was down by the lake at midnight sitting in a chair with my feet propped up just being still.

We are all running around, and we are constantly being bombarded by huge amounts of information. We are constantly checking  email or getting a phone call or a text. We are so busy we aren’t being still at all. I watch parents run their kids from this event to that practice. They don’t stop all day. I find myself like this. Tuesday night I didn’t close my work computer and say done for the day until after 10:00. The juxtaposition of how that felt versus how I felt sitting still by that lake really hit me. I don’t need the lake what I need is to be still and just listen to God. I need to soak in His presence. I need to think on Him. The things I do may be good things, but if they tear me away from the time I need to “be still” then how good can they really be for me. The thing to take is are you taking the time to be still? Are you so connected, scheduled, and busy that life just rolls from one day to the next without really growing to know God better? What do you need to do or remove from your life so you can “be still”?