He's been whispering it for awhile. In a voice clear, low, strong. At the oddest of times, in the most ordinary of places. But it's been a thread steadily woven none the less.Let your striving cease.
I'm not sure what that means, what all the particulars look like. It could be ...
the whole exhausting social media thing
endless committee and board meetings
foolish aiming for perfection
calendars jam-packed with meaningless activities
trying to control, fix, manipulate everybody and everything
Sometimes we don't have a choice but to obey His persistently loving call to solitude. Physical maladies, life circumstances, ridiculous schedules, and incessant demands have a way of leveling the playing field.
Or maybe a better way of looking at it is to breathe a deep sigh of relief and say 'thank You' to this compelling invitation from our Creator, our Sustainer.
'Be still, and know that I am God.'
{Psalm 46:10}
"Let your strivings cease"...I need to stop striving to please others...it's impossible!
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth ... talk about a futile pursuit! I love that verse where Paul tells the Corinthians that he makes it his goal to please HIM (2 Corinthians 5:9).
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It has helped to move. A fresh start and the opportunity to be very intentional about my commitments. No has become a part of my vocabulary! Searching for His direction and praying to be used for His Good Purpose.
ReplyDeleteInteresting all the benefits a fresh start provides! I love the whole idea about being intentional about commitments, too ... keeps us from being swept along with the tide.
DeleteGood stuff, Lulu ...
Cease striving has been a clarion call for me at different times in my life. Heeding that call has always been the right thing to so. NOt a favotire verse but one of the significant ones in my life.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Linda, that the most significant verses might not always be our favorites! Let's hear it for those clarion calls!
DeleteYou must have read my mind, Linda, for this is exactly the phase I'm going through myself. I've been getting a message that I need to trust more and stop striving. It's a process, but I also find it liberating to slowly let go of my control and let it be.
ReplyDeleteTrust. Yes! Trust that God is with me, will lead me ahead, will take care of much of what I've been striving for ...
DeleteWhat a perfect word, Yuko.
Hi Linda! Well I for one am happy that you didn't stop striving all together... I LOVED our phone session. I put down the phone feeling so much stronger and focused. What a gift you have to bring out clarity. Yay! I'm going to spend some time thinking about all the wonderful things we talked about, and hopefully come out a better blogger.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you! and hugs too,
Ceil
You've made my day! I'm grateful that the coaching worked for you and can't wait to see how it plays out ...
DeleteIt was so cool to talk voice to voice as well as heart to heart, my friend.
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Thinking about this just this morning, Linda. Once a week I try to go to a Centering Prayer session with a church in my neighborhood. I need more times like that to just stop my own thoughts and plans and just rest in his presence as a way of life.... Not there, but on my way. Thankful for his grace to keep me going that direction.
ReplyDeleteI love what you've said. He's always calling us to something deeper. But there is a cost and that is the releasing of our relentless striving, the craziness of life and schedule, clamor and speed, and those endless to-do lists.
DeleteI'd love to hear more about your weekly session, Lisa. This is good stuff. Thanks, my friend, for sharing the depth of your heart here in this space.
I LOVE this. Thank you for this beautiful truth that I so needed to hear. Glad to have been your neighbor at Coffee for your Heart. Thank you. ~Jenna // A Mama Collective
ReplyDeleteWe're all in the same boat, yes?
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Okay, first, Ceil's comment has me oh so excited for our phone conversation on Saturday! We were chatting about you when we met for lunch recently too. :) Your message speaks right to my heart. I actually shared that same verse with someone today too. I know I need to spend more time resting in Him. With the warmer weather my love for long walks has been helping allow for more of that time. Blessings to you. xoxo
ReplyDeleteYep, aren't those long walks just the best prayer times? Body and soul are in much better shape afterwards, too!
DeleteAnd I'm looking forward to our coaching call on Saturday, too! I would have loved to have done lunch at Panera's with you guys, but the mid-west is, sadly, not exactly down the street from NY!
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I needed to hear this now. My God has it all under control and certainly doesn't need my help!
ReplyDeleteI like how you put that, Sarah. And ain't that the truth!
DeleteLove this post, Linda. Resting in Jesus and His finished work, we truly can cease striving, amen!
ReplyDeleteYes, yes. We must choose to rest, to trust. Over and over. He is certainly sufficient ... and how soon we forget.
DeleteThanks for sharing a bit of time with us this evening, Beth. I am glad you're here.
yes, to the stillness
ReplyDeleteyes, to the knowing
just this, yes
So neat to bump into you again this evening. And so very good to see you again.
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Linda -
ReplyDelete"Amen" to your blog on Relentless Striving. It's been a real sore spot with me for a long time. Busy, busy, busy...and families suffer, relationships suffer, people get so busy they don't enjoy the life God has given them. There - I've spoken!
P.S. Psalm 46:10 is my very favorite Bible verse!
Preach it, girlfriend! Preach it! And you have every reason to, because you live out that peaceful, gentle life. And now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen you hurry!
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I gave up striving awhile ago. Now it's survival.
ReplyDeleteThere are two choices, really - keep pushing to do what I can, for as long as I can - and maintain my physical and mental fabric to best accomplish this...or let it go, drug myself against the pain in my gut (which is akin to being shot in the back...which I have experienced).
I will not survive this. Doesn't matter, though. Honor is in how well you play a losing hand.
A poem by Henry Lee comes to mind -
"I see no gleam of victory alluring,
no hope of splendid booty, or of gain.
If I endure, I must go on enduring,
and my sole reward for bearing pain - is pain.
Yet though the thrill, the zest, and the hope are gone
something within me keeps me fighting on."
Henry Lee survived the Bataan Death March, only to die on a Japanese prison ship in 1944.
There are times, I guess, when there is no rest until the day's over, and that's how it seems for me. Sometimes you've just got to ride it in, and hope Jesus is waiting on the other side.
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-first-love-language.html
Keep on walking through it, Andrew. Keep on writing. And keep on dialoguing with your doctor about the best way to do this season well. There are no pat answers. But that you already know.
DeleteAnd please know that Jesus promises eternal life with Him to all who call out His name in belief. May peace, even in the pain, be your constant companion.
I'm asking the community here to join me in praying for you today ...
Linda, thank you. That means a lot.
DeleteFor me, there is no doctor. After illness cost me my academic job, I lost my health insurance, and can't afford it now. No doctor,no medicine, but that's okay. Pain control through focus and faith is a challenge. I would not say it's fun, but it's probably good for my soul. (And the last time I saw a doctor I was told that pain management is my only option, anyway.)
But please, everyone - pray for those who can't afford healthcare, and who have conditions that could be cured if they could only get the care they need. It would be heartbreaking to have something treatable, and to have to watch it spiral out of control because there is no way to obtain treatment, and the only way to attempt to pay would be placing it above food, clothing, and shelter for one's family.
Please pray for them.
Linda, it looks like your comments struck a chord here today /yesterday - whenever this lovely post was!
ReplyDeleteWhen I retired i had decided i would say know to any on-going commitment for the next 9 months...well that has been extended because of the caregiving that was suddenly thrust upon us...and I still say no to any on-going commitments. for now - for how long, I dont' know, but i know I must do this. I find the more of life i live, the more I crave the silence, the quiet....it's my lifeblood. This was a beautiful post, Linda.
That you know you must say 'no' for now and actually follow up on that is a lovely gift you give yourself, Carol. That you're listening to that craving for silence and quiet shows that you are tending to your body and soul in the ways they need it most.
DeleteI applaud you ... and thank you for sharing a bit of your story here. Caregiving is a huge task, rewarding, yet incredibly draining and numbingly exhausting. You are saying a great big YES by loving well, my friend ...
I know a good bench. . . I went to a retreat once where the topic was, "Cease Striving and Know" Basically, Know = Know that He is God and God is Enough. That God is Enough part is a hard place to get to, but it's the only way we can completely cease striving for certain things in our life. It was a great retreat! Have a blessed weekend, my friend!
ReplyDeleteI love a good silent retreat. It's been awhile. I think it's time for another ...
DeleteI cannot even tell you how Psalm 46:10 has been stirring in my heart. And then this morning, I read, "Come to me, all of you who are weary & carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." He longs to give us rest for our souls but we must be intentional to make that time. So glad this all spoke into my heart & I will be taking a rest the end of this week. Blessings! (I visited from Chronicles of Grace this morning).
ReplyDeletePraise God for leading you ahead into a restful, still place, where your strivings can begin to cease. May these days that lead up to that respite be filled with the calmness of His presence.
DeleteI'm so glad He led you here this morning, friend.
I have "Be Still and Know I am God" at my desk at work - it helps quiet my unrest. I'm learning to just go with His flow - makes me feel like surfing, though I've never surfed - but just letting the wave of Him push me forward to where He wants me to go. Or maybe it's like free-falling. Just this last week, I've been trying to give Him something He said He'll take care of for me, but I keep grabbing it back - and spend all day giving it to Him and taking it back - but each day - I manage to let Him keep it longer:)
ReplyDeleteGood words here, Linda! Thank you for sharing them!
Going with HIS flow sure beats 'going with the flow', doesn't it! Thanks for that fresh look at a worn out phrase from our culture, my friend! You've sure added to the conversation here, and I'm so glad you've come by this evening!
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Rest well ...
It touches my soul to meditate on this whispered message, Linda. So similar to the ones I hear.
ReplyDeleteBut it's more than that, really. Do you know how many blogs and books and bible studies and the like are there to tell us to run faster, do better, try harder?? They clutter the bookstore shelves and jam up in my inbox. (And perhaps there is a time for that message, I understand that.) But the simplicity of your cry here, the freedom, the *Unforced Rhythms* ;) that you communicate? Oh, friend. I think there is a great need for such gentleness. A great need.
Thank you, thank you, for being a bearer of GOOD news, Linda. Bless you.
Yes, Kelli. His rhythms are unforced, grace laden, peaceful, and rejuvenating. And He keeps wooing us in that direction, yes?
DeleteNow ... to put all that other stuff aside and follow Him to the restorative places. 'Cause our souls are yearning to go there. And His yoke is easy, His burden is light.
This past 2 weeks were hard ones as we prayed over and dealt with kid issues.Thankfully, it is all better. But it was an emotional roller coaster! I needed lots of "sit & silence" time.
ReplyDeleteIs there anything more heartbreaking? I'm grateful for a speedy resolution to whatever it was. And pray that God would pour out refreshment on you in this upcoming weekend. May you be surrounded by uplifting pockets of solitude and silence, my friend ...
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