The thoughts that accompany stillness frighten me. What I mean by that is, the rare moments I am not preoccupied with a task or vacation or exercise, my brain shifts into overdrive with thoughts.

The thoughts are crippling anxiety about the near future- as a college freshman moving into her dorm within the blink of an eye, my schedule is filling up and there is hardly time to tie my shoes, much less breathe. Right now in the stillness of the night as I am laying in bed writing this article, my brain cannot help but think of the endless amount of activities I feel I must do before school begins.

Then I was hit by a ton of bricks.

I went to God in prayer and cried out for peace. "God, please give my brain some time to process everything I have to do, and help me not feel overwhelmed. Help me make time for everything," I prayed. In the middle of that prayer, I could clearly hear God speaking to me, saying "Child, have peace, but did you forget that you need to spend time with me too?"

My thoughts about the upcoming month vanished when I realized that in the midst of my carving out time for certain people and certain activities, I left out the God who created everything. The God who sent His son to die for my sins, and I was leaving him out of my schedule. How was it possible that He created time, to begin with, but I, a mere human, did not think twice about giving Him any?

My heart broke because of this; then again, I believe it should have. So often people- myself included, obviously- may have had an excellent day, and accomplish everything they thought they would need to, but left out praying or spending time in God's word. How wretched we are to do such a thing.

But it seems our faults and failures and sins hold not a single flame to the grace God gives. We could never have earned it ourselves: Ephesians 2:8-9 explains it best by stating "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast."

How blessed we are that it is not what we do, or what we schedule, that continues our relationship with God! It is solely dependent on how much God cares about us, despite our broken souls, and how His son Jesus loved us enough to suffer so we would not have to. He did not call us to have anxiety over what we would do next, but instead, He calls us to rest, and be still, in the comfort He gives us by praying and reading the Bible. The quiet and still moments no longer have to be filled with fear.