Blessed inactivity

Read Psalm 131

1    LORD,my heart is not proud;
         my eyes are not haughty.
      I don’t concern myself with matters too great
         or too awesome for me to grasp.
2    Instead,I have calmed and quieted myself,
         like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
         Yes,like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3    O Israel,put your hope in the LORD-
         now and always. (NLT)

If this Psalm was written by King David,it is a remarkable expression of humility. The great king was not boasting of his greatness or setting out some ambitious plan of conquest. He was content to simply be with God. As a weaned child is content just to be with its mother,not seeking its mother for the milk she could provide. David was seeking God simply to be with God,not so as to get something extra from him.

It is so easy to miss this perspective. Christians are often fond of telling one another just how busy they are: it becomes a sort of pious boasting. We are so busy doing all the things we figure God needs us to do that we scarcely have any time to spend just with him. If we don’t spend time with him to get our marching orders,chances are we will march off in the wrong direction. Our activity will serve our own ego needs rather than divine purposes.

Being very busy can actually be a sort of laziness: an unwillingness to figure out just what needs to be done and what can be safely left undone-at least by us. It can express a lack of trust in God whereby we reckon we have to do his work for him.

Ultimately,we are not called by God to be busy,but to be fruitful. And they may not be the same thing.

Blessings
David Reay