SIT STILL

Meditation may get off to slow start for a lot of us because one of the first lessons we must learn is to ‘sit still.’ From the early days of being a boy in school and in church meetings, I heard parents and adults say, ‘Be quiet and sit still.’ Right up until now, these have been difficult directions for me to follow. I always knew if I ever could get away from school and church and adults, I would never be quiet or sit still again.

The years have passed and as an adult I do not particularly listen to past voices from school or church. Now I try to find silence and listen to the voice of God. But that voice gives this initial instruction as entry into meditation: ‘Be quiet and sit still.’ Wouldn’t you know it?

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) has written in ‘Ash Wednesday,’
‘Teach us to care and not to care,
Teach us to sit still.’

Only as we sit still will we know which one to do.

“Peace, be still.“ Jesus