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Topic: Start (01/16/06)
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TITLE: Stopping to Start | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gayle Laster
01/22/06 -
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When I drew the crumpled Promise Card out of the small plastic box this morning I chose a familiar verse. Be still and know that I am God. ( Ps. 46:10) I smile, I must have drawn the card a dozen times lately. Most times I think, OK, God, that sounds good. Maybe you can tell me how I can be still. I shrug my shoulders as I replace the card and start another hectic day of making breakfast, packing lunches, and searching for the homework paper that mysteriously vanished from the kitchen table during the night.
By the time breakfast is over and the dirty dishes are stacked in the sink I’m snatching the car keys off the hook and yelling last minute orders to the kids to grab their coats, lunches and backpacks and hurry up and get in the car. They all pile in, two in the back one in the front, slamming doors, buckling seat belts, and arguing about some terrible thing somebody did or said to somebody else on the way to the garage. I tell myself that it’s typical sibling squabbling and it shouldn’t bother me, but I must not be listening because they are driving me up the wall. Then without warning from somewhere deep inside I hear a tiny whisper, Be still and know that I am God, I sigh, and say, OK, God, just show me how to be still.
The bickering continues all the way to school. When my youngest finally jumps out of the car I realize the back of my neck and shoulder blades are tied in knots. And it’s only eight o’clock in the morning. I ease out of the drop off-lane and merge into traffic remembering the committee meeting at church that starts at nine. When I reach my driveway I unlock the back door and scramble to the bathroom. I have just enough time to bathe, shampoo, get dressed and still make it to my meeting on time. I step into the shower; the warm water soothes my tense muscles. I’d love to linger, but I’ve got to get going so I can make my nine o’clock.
At ten minutes to nine I slide into the driver’s seat mentally congratulating myself for pulling it all together so quickly. If I hit the traffic lights just right I can be in the church parking lot and have a few seconds to spare before the meeting begins. I begin to relax. With a hint of a smile I put the key into the ignition and twist…nothing happens. I try a second time, then a third. There is not the sound of an engine firing up only a click, click, click, each time I turn the key. Exasperated, I pop the hood, get out of the car and stare at the complex machinery before me. I have no idea what to do next. I can’t call my husband. He’s out of town on business and the only neighbor I know well enough to ask for help has already left for work. I look at my watch, there’s no way I can get to the meeting on time now. I give up, I slam the hood shut going back into the house I notice the dirty dishes in the sink then I step on a smudge of waffle syrup I’d spilled on the floor in my rush to get the kids out of the house earlier. That topped it. For the first time that morning I just stopped. In the silence of the room I began to hear the same message that had echoed in my mind twice before.
Be still and know that I am God.
Each time I’d heard those words before I’d asked God to show me how to be still. He was showing me right now, there was nothing to do but stop and start being still.
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