I have discovered that all the miseries of men derive from one single fact:  they cannot sit quietly in their own room.” Blaise Pascal

I speculate that those who are coping best with the realities of social isolation in midst of an unknown future are those who had previously learned to sit quietly before the Lord. I have several friends who are thriving under the imposed conditions while others are filled with anxiety.

We all experience times when storms come and our world is shaken. However; learning to meditate on truth and spend time in solitude with the Lord provides a foundation and an anchor which many are now scrambling to gain. Perhaps you are familiar with the analogy from nature. A tree puts down its roots and is strengthened long before it shows evidence of growth. Those who have practiced waiting on the Lord over the years, do not find these circumstances as trying, merely another opportunity to submit to the Lord’s timing and ways.

While we frequently quote Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know I am God,” do we act upon this? I wonder if the Lord has provided us with an opportunity to examine our busyness and make adjustments. In Isaiah 30:15, the Lord offers the people an invitation, “In repentance and rest you will be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength. But you were unwilling,”

When confronted with changes or the unknown, we have been conditioned to believe we must take some action and do something. Could it be worse to do something God has not told us to do rather than to do nothing at all?  While waiting on the Lord and being still may appear to be doing “nothing,” in reality, we are being imparted with the Lord’s strength and gaining understanding. Are our over-scheduled lives really virtuous? Is what we have labeled efficient and productive depriving us of the rest God invited us to enter?

Currently we are restricted to engaging in only “essential” activities.  As I wait, I am asking the Lord which activities in my life does He deem essential.  When our governor lifts the restrictions, will we head back full speed into all those things we were doing? Have we realigned our hearts so that our roots continue grow deeply into God’s love preparing us for the next storm that will eventually come? May we be like the man in Psalm 1 who is like the tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither. In whatever he does, he prospers. Our essential activities will then become about the Lord’s fruitfulness in us, not our productivity for Him.