Spin

The Whirling Dervishes, a Sufi Muslim sect, spin.  Have you ever seen YouTube videos of them? They spin for hours, trying desperately to touch the divine.  They spin to hear heaven’s voice. They spin for healing. They  spin themselves into a trance so they can leave the burdens of this earth behind.

Some of us shake our heads at the futility of this manic twirling.  But you know what?

We spin too.

We spin because we want God’s blessings. We spin because we’re hurting. We twist and turn because we want to hear His voice. We spin because it makes us look better.

We spin because we desperately want God’s acceptance, acceptance we already have.

We spin because countless Christian books, and radio hosts, and sermons tell us to…

Do more

Say more

Give more

Be more

As many of you know, I’ve been on a quest this year, a quest to learn from Christian artists who have found ways to make an impact on secular culture. In talking to these award-winning filmmakers, directors, animators, and musicians, I’ve noticed something. They’re singularly focused on what they do. They know who they are, who they’re meant to be, and chase after that with all their hearts. And in doing so, they’ve had to say NO… to good things that aren’t their things, to church things that take them away from God things, to anything that takes them away from their purpose, to anything that causes them to spin.

See, in order to make an impact, we need time. Time to heal, time to think, time to listen, and time to be excellent. Excellent in our art, excellent in our relationships, excellent at saying no to the guilt that wants to pull us away from who we’re meant to be. In other words, we need to stop spinning.

Stop and be still…

Be still and enjoy the life God has given us. Be still and enjoy our families, our friends, the blue sky outside, all gifts that came with no strings attached.

Or maybe it’s time to be still and sit patiently in the painful silence and wait…wait for the answers we’ve been crying out for instead of trying to conjure them up. Then, just maybe,  we’ll be able to hear God’s whisper, the whisper that says

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  29   Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  30   For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

There has to come a point in our relationship with God that we finally feel like we’re okay, comfortable, at ease with the amazing relationship God has given to us through His son.  It’s time to finally embrace the fact that God loves us already. He accepts us for who we are and hears our prayers, our sighs…our silence.

So to all of you who are tired of spinning, be still with me this year. And this time, maybe we’ll finally give Him the glory for the miracles that find their way into our lives, because it wasn’t our spinning that brought the blessings.

It never was.

 

 

 

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