A “Be Still” Week

I was on cloud nine after our first 2023 Journey with a Giant Sharing Circle. A dozen or so people are in the group who selected Spiritual Giants and began walking with them January 1st. We had just finished our first meeting virtually face-to-face. It was terrific!
 
Before closing the computer, I decided to check my email. There, before I opened it, I could read the opening sentence. “So sorry to tell you this but…”. The words no author wants to hear.  I’d been eagerly waiting for this email but hoping for a different outcome. After two and a half months of consideration, edits and communication back and forth, the publisher I most hoped would offer a contract for my book declined.
 
I had to sit down. It felt like my legs were knocked out from underneath me. Every bit of energy drained from my body. Everything, along this publishing journey had been straight up, optimistic, looking like a “Go!”. Hard work, absolutely; the hardest I’ve ever done. Stretching? Beyond belief. The last six months had all been leading to this point. It looked SO good!
 
Then this. The course shifted. I was in shock. After talking with a few people, I immediately wanted to start putting the next steps of the plan in motion. I wanted to schedule new meetings. Make a new plan NOW.
 
But it wasn’t time for that. What I wanted was to be out of pain as soon as possible. And action is a great remedy.  
 
Instead, I needed to give that painful moment, the space it needed. When there’s grief it needs to be given time.
 
The email came on a Friday morning. We had a big surprise 80th birthday party to orchestrate, family and festivities. The weekend was the perfect opportunity to let it sit.
 
I have always known this book was God’s not mine. This was a fresh opportunity to place it back in His hands.  As I went to God in the frantic first moments and typed thoughts for my next steps, the Lord dropped something different in my heart. I needed to take a “Be Still” week. A week to stop. To place myself in his hands. To remember apart from what happens with publishing, I am his little girl.  
 
A month earlier, at the beginning of the year, God had given me a verse, “He who began a good work will perform and complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” What if that verse wasn’t just about his work in me that would “continue and be perfected” by his effort not mine, but also the good work of bringing this book to the world?
 
 
The Holy Spirit was instructing me to take a week to “Be Still”; to not put my hand to any solution. But to sit back, pause, honor, praise, enjoy and trust God.
 
If I knew anything I knew I didn’t want this book to be product of my hands but God’s. I could confirm that by my obedience to this week.
 
But, being still is hard!
 
God tells us in the Old Testament of instructing his people as they prepared to go to war. He sent a prophet to tell them they weren’t to go but that he was going to defeat their enemies without them. He told them to “Be Still” and then it says, “But they would have none of it.”
 
Patience and stillness were too hard. Harder than hand to hand combat? Yes. Harder than war, than throwing javelins and possibly being pierced by them?  Yes.
 
It should be the easiest thing in the world. Action is hard, stillness shouldn’t be, right?
 
It’s hard to believe until you have to “be still” yourself.
 
Sitting still in my pain was hard at first until the Holy Spirit soothed my soul, showing me the good gift God was offering and I settled in. I didn’t work on the book. I didn’t make any appointments. I took a week of rest, praise and watchfulness. I got on my knees during my quiet time, turned off all the lights and let God’s presence fill and calm me in the candlelight.
 
Why do I have trouble waiting, afraid of time slipping by, when God is the creator of time and can multiply it back a hundredfold, when he signals it’s time to move again; causing things to fall into place quicker than humanly possible?
 
My life and the book went back into God’s hands anew. When the week was done, I looked at where I saw God’s light on my path. There were new options on the horizon, joy and peace.
 
Thank you, God for your invitation to a “Be Still” week. I look forward to the next time you invite me again.

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Have you ever had a time the Holy Spirit has prompted you to be still and wait?