Stillness

I stopped today.

In the stillness
I find myself
Still here
No task at hand
Still, I am
No pace set
I am still
Happy meeting
Holy moment
Lingering still

©2025 Jacqueline Tisthammer. All rights reserved. 

These moments are hard to come by in my life, how about yours?

I am a master of holding all the chaos at bay. For the required tasks, I set alarms on my phone. For everything else, my favorite strategy is post-its. I put all the should-dos and wish-I-could-dos on paper for safekeeping, and then I don’t have to stress about them. The problem is that nothing is really finished. I just live in a tidy corner of my mind, slowly becoming delusional while my husband stresses over all the post-its.

This is not the stillness we are looking for.

Stillness is surrender. It has nothing to do with finishing a list, and not nearly as much to do with being in beautiful forests as I would like to think. Stillness is elusive, even when we cultivate a desire for it and set aside time to pursue it. We can make space in life for silence, for retreat, for margin and Sabbath and recreation; all good things! But stillness is something more.

Stillness is an interior movement of the soul, a setting down of every idol simultaneously. It is a work of the Spirit, a moment of being without strings attached.

Moments of stillness are more like a gift given on a random Tuesday afternoon than a well-planned vacation. They are not earned, are often not expected. Moments of stillness are recognized through attentiveness, received through presence, but always a gift from the Lord.

I’ll close with a quote that’s been on my office whiteboard for over a year. I can’t seem to be done pondering it! This is from Drew Jackson’s poem, “Hands Full of Heaven.” You can find the whole poem in his book, God Speaks Through Wombs, it is worth the read.

“I will take all the heaven
I can gather for today.
Tomorrow I will sit,

again,
with these hands cupped
to receive my enough.”

Catch up on Sabbatical Reflection #1: Plans

Continue with Sabbatical Reflection #3: Slowing