cease striving

“cease striving and know that I am God.” 

if you haven’t read any of the works of brennan manning, you should. he writes of grace with raw honesty. in his book “the furious longing of God," manning is reflecting on his life and writes, “if I had it to do again, i wouldn’t devote one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth. no not one.” 

when we constantly evaluate how we’re growing, where we stand, and if we’re moving forward, we miss out of the beauty of the present moment. our incessant search for more leaves us always wanting, never content to sit and be still. as one intimately familiar with the all encompassing strive to do, achieve, go, serve, and move, i’ve recently been captured by the notion of stillness. it is not a practice that comes easy. the perpetual push to achieve leads us to inner exhaustion. in the gospel of matthew we hear, “come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” from weary to rest. 

when we find a way to lay down our striving, we experience the intimacy of the present moment, and in that intimacy find union with the One who has been present with us all along. 

“Oneness with ultimate reality is not an abstract idea; it is a spiritual experience of knowing that the timeless God is at the door inviting us to full union. It is an attentiveness to the present, the readiness, at every moment, to receive reality to enjoy deeply even the simplest things. In the words of poet Paul Murray: ‘This moment, the grace of this one raptureless moment’” - Thomas Brodie