The only time
“Be still, and know that I am God…”
– Psalm 46:10
Dear reader, have you ever stopped to consider the fact that we modern humans are time travelers?
Well, at the very least we certainly try to be. Have you ever noticed how little time we humans spend living in the time God has given us? Have you ever thought about all the problems that arise from living in the wrong times? Let me explain. When we find ourselves chained down with a grudge, it’s because, in our minds, we are living in the past where some wrong was done to us.
When we are sick with worry and anxiety about some potential problem, we are living in the future where our imaginations run wild. God has only ever given us now, it’s the only time that truly exists and the only time that matters.
We have no way of knowing exactly what the future will become, and the past is beyond our ability to change. Now, however, can be seen for exactly what it is and can be changed so easily by us. God has given us now, yet in our minds we so rarely allow ourselves to live in now.
God instructs us to be still. When’s the last time we’ve actually done that? When is the last time you’ve just stopped and listened? Do you even know anymore what the world around you sounds like?
When’s the last time you stopped and stared at a sunset without a single thought, just to appreciate the beauty of it? When’s the last time you’ve driven somewhere and actually remembered the entire commute there?
To be still is simply to allow our minds to focus on right now, on the time God has given us, the place where we are, the people we are with, and the God within us. When we allow ourselves to do this we find our minds go quiet, the thoughts slip away, and we are still.
In this stillness, we find the peace of God, which passes all understanding, because it’s a peace that exists in the stillness between our thoughts. In this stillness, we come to know God, not simply to believe what we’ve been taught, because then we could come to disbelieve it one day.
Instead, we come to truly know, because we are present, alive, and actively experiencing God right now.
So, if I could leave you with any encouragement this week, dear reader, it would be to live in the right time, to live in the only time, to live now.
Jason Shockley is an evangelist and teacher passionate about uplifting others through the word of God.