Listen:
Psalm 131
My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.
Consider:
The height of media glory these days is the hot take. A hot take is a quick, in the moment take on an item of pop culture. And, with the rise of apps like Twitter and TikTok, the faster and more outlandish the response, the more responses and attention you seem to get.
It would be easy to imagine this phenomenon is confined to the kookier part of the internet, but it’s not. Hot take culture has infiltrated all corners of our world with immediate, extreme, and intense statements given primacy over thoughtful but time-delayed pieces. We seem to prefer quick, but wrong, information over slow, but more accurate, news.
All this fascination with speed leads to a culture of frenetic energy and anxious obsessions with what’s next. Just because we can do things faster doesn’t mean we should.
This Psalm asks us to resist this pull towards busyness and jam-packed weekly schedules in favor of a rested, studied calm. It turns out that slower, but consistent, is actually a much healthier and more productive way to go about life.
Calming and quieting ourselves is a central part of a healthy human existence - and it’s a faithful one. While God constantly speaks to our hearts, it is much harder to hear it when we don’t take the time to center and calm ourselves.
It’s an active choice to resist the lure and temptation of the quick and dirty in favor of the calm and reasoned life. The choice is the holiest one. So slow down. Check the news once a day. Take one item off your schedule. Spend five minutes in silence.
It’s ok to rest, be calm, and be at peace.
Respond:
Before you do anything else today, spend five minutes doing nothing. Don’t do a chore or even write anything down. Set a timer, walk to a window and just notice what you see. When the timer goes off, take inventory. How do you feel? Is it different from normal? More relaxed and focused, or distracted and frantic? Maybe try it again later in the day.
Pray:
Dear God, everything feels fast today. Please remind me to slow down my pace and my breathing. Help me be truly present in this exact moment, not rushed by the future. Quiet the noise in my head. Grant me the inner peace and calm I need right now. Amen.
