Something I hear almost every time I talk about stillness is, “I want to, I just can’t seem to make it happen.” And I want us to just sit with that for a second because I think most people who say that they’re being completely sincere. They’re not lazy. They’re not unspiritual. They genuinely want a quiet, attentive relationship with Jesus.

They just keep ending up at the end of the day with exactly zero minutes of stillness and they can’t figure out how to do it. So today, we’re going to name what’s actually happening because once you see the pattern, you have something to work with. We live in a culture that has designated busyness as a virtue. It’s because the noise that busyness creates, the mental, emotional, physical noise of a perpetually full life, that noise is exactly what drowns out the quiet voice of God.

Slowing down is not a productivity strategy. It’s a countercultural spiritual act. And when you choose to be still, you are choosing something that your calendar, your phone, your to-do list, and in some cases, the people around you are actively working against. Inner hurriedness is a term I’ve come to love because it names something most of us experience, and we don’t have a word for it.

It’s not just being busy. It’s the feeling of being busy even when you’re not busy. It’s the way your mind just jumps to the next thing before the current thing is even finished. It’s the low-grade sense that you should be doing something more productive than what you’re doing right now all the time.

Years ago, God spoke to my heart about those thoughts and he says those are not holy thoughts. They’re not healthy thoughts and they don’t line up with his heart. He invites us. He doesn’t push us.

And when we feel pushed, well, those thoughts are coming from somewhere else. He said to reject those thoughts that I had not done enough and to celebrate what I had accomplished that day and to simply rest in it. He did that on the seventh day after he had worked and created all that there was to create. He celebrated and he rested.

This is where the whole idea of Sabbath rest was born. It’s meant to be a day of rest and celebration. Our culture sees it as punishment or time out when rest is what we truly need. We are in dire need of rest.

A rhythm of work and rest is a healthy rhythm and most of us don’t have that. Reason I want you to find your version of this is that you can’t slow down something that you can’t see. Once you name it, oh that’s the thing, that inner hurriedness, you can actually begin to identify it. Then you can make a choice.

I want you to do something. Take a look at these two columns. This isn’t about shaming anyone for doing more on that side. Most of what’s on that list is genuinely good.

Work, care for people, responsibilities that matter. The issue isn’t that those things exist. The issue is when there’s no counterweight. When the slowing down column is empty.

We often say we want to hear from God. But if you look at your week, you really look at it, really take a look. Does the shape of your days reflect a desire to make space and time to hear when God speaks? It’s not to make you feel bad about your answer, but because the gap between what we want and how we live is exactly where the work is.

Silence and quiet doesn’t just happen. You won’t stumble into it. I promise. You have to choose it.

You have to protect it. You have to come back to it when life takes it away because it will. Life will take it away. Silence is this huge container for what which much good fruit comes from.

This week’s practice is 10 minutes of silence. That’s a long time. You’ll see. That’s it though.

No music, no podcast, no ambient noise, just quiet. And I want to prepare you for something that’s probably going to happen in those 10 minutes. Your mind is going to get very busy. You’ll feel restless in your body.

You’ll even notice an emotion come up. You’ll want to move. It’s not a problem. That’s just practice working on it.

Just sit with it. Silence isn’t a reward you get after you get in a quieter inside. It’s how you get quieter inside. Once you begin to wrestle with it, two things will probably happen.

You’ll realize how much is impacting your life and what resistance there is to be practicing it. It can be actually a great awakening.