We race. From meeting to meeting. From screen to screen. From this to that. From hurry to more hurry.
When we wake from brief sleep to the moment we collapse again, we have minds buzzing, hearts racing, and souls aching.
Busy!
We are always busy.
Reaching for the next thing, the next task, the next distraction. Always reaching.
We tell ourselves that constant doing is necessary. The world won’t stop, so why should we? Productivity is praised. Motion is celebrated.
If we aren’t moving, we fear we are failing. If we stop, we fear we might fall apart.
We fill every silent space with sound, every empty moment with motion. The hum of screens. The buzz of notifications. The endless scroll.
Why? Because doing nothing scares us.
Silence reveals what we’d rather not see. Stillness surfaces the questions we’ve buried. In the quiet, we face the parts of ourselves we’d rather avoid.
So we numb ourselves, packing our schedules and our brains. With busyness. With noise. With never-ending doing.
But what if doing nothing is the therapy we actually need? What if pausing could heal us? What if a Sabbath rhythm where we “do nothing, but be” could restore what we’ve lost?
Our exhausted brains were not meant for this endless pace. The constant churn fractures our attention. It steals our creativity. It breaks our ability to be fully present because our minds never stop spinning.
And our souls? They shrink in the absence of stillness.
When was the last time you heard the whisper of God’s voice? When did you last sit, fully aware, fully alive, fully present?
We’re doing this to ourselves. Running on fumes and calling it success. Exhausting our souls and calling it normal.
But it isn’t normal. It’s numbing.
And beneath the addiction to doing? We are longing. For rest. For meaning. For significance that isn’t earned by achievement.
Maybe it’s time to stop. Turn off the screens? I don’t like the idea, though I might need it. Silence the noise, to sit in the stillness and breathe again? I don’t like the idea, though I might need it. I write about it and talk about it. But I do not apply it well.
I should. I should say yes to this life of saying no. I should realize it’s time to stop.
Not to achieve. Not to perform. Not to impress.
Just to be.
What if the healing we need waits for the therapy of doing nothing?
This topic always gets my attention! I grew up being taught… don’t be lazy, go, go, go; be busy & working and you feel approved of. It is so hard to change that!! , There is always much to do , and even when i seem to slow down, my mind is chastizing me. Because someone will think im lazy.
I love this post. Oftentime, I find myself doing “nothing” as in endless scrolling and this is where I feel unproductive. It is challenging to be fully present in doing nothing because I am constantly thinking or worrying about something that isnt being done. The idea of mastering stillness, quietness, and resting in nothingness is that of peaceful, though undeniably scary. I look forward to trying this relaxing technique so that I can slow my mind down and be present in the moment. Thanks for sharing!
This is always a great reminder: to be still, to schedule time for nothingness. I am often guilty of “racing.” Oftentimes I feel there is so much to do and not enough time to do them; however, I need to put the first things first and let the “want to do’s” fall by the wayside. In this season of my life, I can confidently say that I have learned to better pause. I have learned so much from being here at Emmanuel. God has taught me the beauty in being still. Although, I still need frequent reminders that Jesus was never in a hurry. I still have to work on saying “yes to this life of saying no.”
Thank you for this post.
This is a good reminder to embrace nothing as we are busy so much of the time that we forget to have time to ourselves.
I like this line, “We’re doing this to ourselves. Running on fumes and calling it success. Exhausting our souls and calling it normal.” This reminds me that living in the world, does not mean living of the world. I have the individual responsibility and control to slow my life down. No matter if it is praised or not, I have the choice to practice stillness and solitude.
This message makes us think about how being busy all the time can hurt us. We fill our days with work, noise, and distractions, but maybe what we really need is to slow down. Being still can help us rest and heal. It’s not about being lazy—it’s about taking care of our minds, bodies, and souls. Maybe the peace we try to avoid is what we need the most.
If we are constantly finding something else to draw our minds from being within oneself, then who are we? If we are physically unable to sit and listen to the mind which drives our every decision, how could we trust ourselves? If we cannot trust our mind or ourselves at that, how are we to trust others? If we cannot sit and find a way to love who we are when there is no action attached to us, how are we meant to love others? We live in too fast of a life at this point to where we now have forgotten how to exist simply amongst ourselves.
There is beauty in taking a pause in our busy lives.
It is certainly a talent to allow yourself to do nothing, to accept that there are things to do that are important, but that this nothing right now is also important.
This is a good reminder for us to slow down and be thankful. Look around and truly see how beautiful God’s creation is.