I’ll Tell You What I Need: Invitation to a Seven-Day Stay
I paced around my office last night before heading up to bed, hoping to get in a little reading before lights out. I reached for a book, and set it back down.
I picked up another, thumbed through the pages, and put it back on the desk.
Five or six books (probably more, but I won’t say how many) passed through my hands this way, all books I’ve started reading (or reading again) lately, and all found their way back to the shelf.
I hadn’t recognized it as restlessness when I felt it creep in a few days ago. I chalked it up to the transition week when school lets out and my home office sits as an island amidst sailing ships and fishing boats as the guys make the most of their free time.
Over the weekend we’d redesigned my office space so I could spend my days on my feet, working at a stand-up desk instead of realizing only too late that I’d been sitting still for hours at a time. Now I don’t sit still. I don’t sit. I move all day long.
Even in the still, quiet morning stretch with God, I find myself ricocheting off narrow walls of a tunnel, wondering what we’re talking about, what we’re doing, what He’s saying, what I want to hear.
I’ve walked around the office seven times already while I’ve written this. One for each paragraph.
It’s the restlessness of seasons changing, I know.
But I also know something else. I’ll tell you what I need.
I need a seven-day stay.
We’re in a place where I need to sit still, God and I, in the same place for a week. If you’ve been here a while, you know how this goes. We pick a place, and we stay put. We don’t turn the page.
We let Him speak from the same place, over and over and over.
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He is the Word.
There is no rush.
We have all of our lives to shuffle our feet through the topsoil, and we have all our lives to dig deep. He spent eternity past putting words on the Word.
So for these seven days, we put aside the schedules and the checklists and study notes and we just stay in one place. For seven days.
Spend a week with me? Spend a week with Him.
Pick your place — a chapter, a passage, a Psalm, maybe just one single verse.
Meet God in that place, with just those words, every day for the next week.
And if you want, come back here and tell us what you found.
What did you hear? What did you see? Who did you meet?
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Come on back on Friday, May 27 and share with us in the comment box. If you post on your stay, feel free to drop in your link. I’ll be in Hosea. How ’bout you?
Related: The Sparrow Knows: Invitation to a Seven-Day Stay Psalm 88: God's Dark, Messy, Painful Gift --- Photo: Currently reading. . . I so need to sit still.
Lyla,
I read your words-
stay, rest, wait.
I am a whirlwind, my dad when I was young coined me in Italian as a “rolling stone that gathers no moss”
Only by His grace and strength do I take this momentum and stay it on HIM.
I’ve looked over your blog and you are a thinker, a studier, a brilliant wordsmith and a woman dedicated to knowing Jesus- you are refreshing.
Thank you.
2011/05/20 at 2:57 PM
Julie, thanks for stopping by and your kind words. Momentum stayed on Him, a good thing.
2011/05/20 at 6:15 PM
It sounds like a great adventure Lyla – albeit quiet and stationary. I’d like to join you. I think it a wise thing to do.
2011/05/20 at 3:59 PM
Yes! Adventure can happen in the still and quiet, can’t it? I’ve not put those two together, but I think you have it right there, Linda. And I’d love to have you along for the ride.
2011/05/20 at 6:16 PM
Oh, I want to join.
Let me think about this.
In the meantime, may I ask… why did you decide to have a standing desk?
2011/05/20 at 5:19 PM
Cool.
And the desk? Once upon a time I worked in a traditional office, prairie dog style in cubicles. It was a sitting down job, but I was up running to the printer, the copier, the boss’s office, the mailroom… Now, working from home, everything is within arm’s reach at my desk. On days when I’m not climbing roofs or slogging in basements or crawling under houses, I work the desk all day. And I forget how long I sit. So after three hours, I’ll stand up and about fall on the floor because I haven’t moved.
So, we rebuilt the stand-up version and I move all day long even though I’m still at the desk. And I’m loving it.
It would work great for your dance-while-working routine, Duane. You should try it.
2011/05/20 at 6:20 PM
i would like to join you.
2011/05/20 at 5:31 PM
Yay, Nance is in!
2011/05/20 at 6:21 PM
my seven day stay was james 4.
but, i forgot to blog about it.
and now i am taking a blog break.
was reading the word this morning and wanted to let you know that… i think i am going to stay with james 4 a bit more.
2011/06/02 at 12:07 PM
Lyla — I was stopping by to tell you that you won a copy of Ann Kroeker’s book, Not So Fast, for being chosen among the commenters on my blog this week. I don’t see that one in your stack. If you want to send me an email with your address – or someway to mail the book to you – I’ll send it on its way.
While I’m here, though, I want to tell you how much I love this idea – slowing down to just be with Jesus. I needed this invitation today.
2011/05/20 at 8:27 PM
Thanks Charity, perhaps just in the nick of time…
2011/05/21 at 12:32 PM
Lyla:
Working while standing up. Novel approach for desk jockeys. I’m sure those folks who are on their feet all day as a requirement of their job would love to have a sit down desk.
However, your going to a stand up desk reminded me of a man I worked with when I was in broadcasting. To begin with, he had a great name for a broadcast newsman, Benedict Hardman.
When he came to work at our station, he was nearing retirement (after years in New York working for the networks) and was working full-time as a professor at one of the Twin Cities private colleges.
He did the news on the weekend and also did a little recorded feature during the week. At any rate, he did all of his live newscasts and the feature recording, standing up.
He said that a person’s diaphragm did not function properly if you were sitting down and trying to project and maximize the effectiveness of your speaking voice. He had a very distinctive and great radio voice, but was never able to convince any of the other on air talents to do their job standing up.
Maybe preachers know this naturally as a part of their calling.
Your ‘off the subject’ Dad
2011/05/20 at 9:40 PM
Aside of moving more, I actually focus better, Dad. At least so far. I’ve not been working on my radio voice this week though, so I can’t attest to any difference in vocal quality. I know I still have callers get angry with me, for what it’s worth.
2011/05/21 at 12:33 PM
I am in….
Thanks for the invite!
2011/05/22 at 1:07 PM
Count me in.
P.S. — I think you need more than seven days — maybe seventy? — to get through that stack.
2011/05/22 at 11:43 PM
Have I said how much I love to read your dad’s comments? As for me, I’ve been doing that Colossians thing so I’ve been spending the year two verses, one week at a time. It has been amazing. I sleep better because the Word is on my lips, close to my heart. So…maybe I’ll stop back by Friday and let you know more. luv you, lyla.
2011/05/23 at 9:49 PM