Last night I stayed up until 2 a.m. writing a paper I procrastinated. This morning I bailed on donut plans with my friends because I was too tired, thus hitting snooze four more times giving myself a solid eight minutes to get dressed and be out the door for church. I skipped breakfast because there just wasn’t enough time and sped all the way, angered at slow drivers because I had five minutes to get there. I managed to slip into the back row, four minutes late, just in time to hear my pastor say two words that made my entire heart sink down to the pit of my stomach — “slow down.”

Slow down.

In this world, we feel the need to constantly fill up our schedules, hour by hour, with appointments and plans. We rush to get from place to place. As a college student, it feels like there is never going to be a light at the end of the tunnel because it just isn’t physically possible to read every chapter and finish every assignment in a 24-hour window. Not to include our mandatory chapter meetings, intramural sports teams, our three-month-old pile of laundry and also trying to eat and sleep in between all of that. Then, on the rare evening when we do have a two-hour gap in our neatly written planners, we fill that up with as many fun plans with our friends as we can because we have the FOMO (fear of missing out) disease and we want to make sure we are “living life to the fullest.”

We can’t remember the last time we actually sat down with our own thoughts or had an intentional conversation with someone.

We have become robots moving rapidly from one task to the next.

We are dry bones.

But we don’t have to be.

This Earth loves to keep us running frantically on a cultural stop watch, with not enough hours in a day. This is where Satan likes to slither his way into our lives, looking for any way to minimize our bearing of fruits for the Kingdom of God. Satan is the King of Distraction.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” -Romans 12:2

While the Earth places value in being busy, the Bible places value in finding rest.

When Jesus lived His earthly ministry, He often escaped life’s busyness and went off by himself to find renewal and hear from the Lord. In Mark 6:31, it reads, “And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while’. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”

In the midst of all the roar of the 21^st century, it is nearly impossible to go off and make time to rest in God’s presence. We rush around getting done “what needs to be done.” Contrary to our culture, we must intentionally make the effort to slow down. The dishes can wait. The phone can ring. Your social media can take a break. 20 minutes less of studying will not kill you. The things of this Earth that fill up our time are not eternal, but Jesus is. So let’s make it a conscious effort to go rest at the feet of the one true God who can renew our strength and fill us with overwhelming peace.

From dry bones to quenched souls.

From busy planners to vessels of freedom.

Be intentional.

Slow down.

Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”