Until I Sit

It’s when I take time to sit that I know how to stand.

Sometimes I find the creativity just flows off the page as I write, but other seasons it seems I feel I have nothing to say.  Yet, there are other times, which I find is most times, that it’s not until I sit down to write that I realize there are words there waiting behind the noise of the day.  I’m reminded in these places how much I’m missing because I’m not sitting.  Well it’s more than the sitting but the stillness that comes when I stop.  If I go too long without sitting I find I can no longer stand.  It’s the sitting that gives me space to realign myself with all that I desire to stand for and the ways I want to live.  I have to find some stillness or I get misdirected by the waves of busyness.  I have to remember what’s important or else it’s decided for me by the demands of the day.  Until I sit I forget how to stand.  

“…Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching…but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:39,42 ESV

Luke tells the story of the sisters Mary and Martha.  I love the picture of how Mary sits with Jesus.  I don’t want to get into Mary versus Martha but I want to look at how Jesus affirms Mary’s time sitting with Him.  He says it will not be taken away from her.  Sometimes we can see being still as a waste of time or be more inclined to be doing something that seems more productive.  Yet, in the words of Jesus this time that Mary sat with Him is the good portion.  It’s good to sit with Jesus.  When we take time to sit with Him we can hear His voice teaching us in the way we should go.  Jesus says to Martha in the midst of her troubling about many things that this one thing is necessary.  The one thing is to sit with Him.  How can we stand for Him if we don’t first sit with Him?!