Thomas Merton, in a letter written in 1959 to Pablo Antonio Caudra (a writer from Nicaragua he had befriended), offered some interesting words about wrestling with the difference between unholy inactivity and holy stillness:
?In any case, let us pray for one another that we may make creative use of the mysterious difficulties of life and shape our courses in ?new directions? if that be the will of God. I fear nothing as much as conventionalism and inertia, which for me is fatal. Yet there is that all-important stillness, and listening to God, which seems to be inertia, and yet is the highest action. One must always be awake to tell the difference between action and inaction, when appearances are so often deceiving?? (Thomas Merton. The Courage for Truth. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1993, p. 187)
On which side of the tension between drivenness and laziness?do you tend to settle:
If drivenness, how might God?s Spirit be inviting you to honoring His gift of Sabbath?of time measured by nothing other than relationship with Him?
If laziness, how might God be stirring you to live out His kindness and love in the places and among the people He has planted you?
With this in mind, what would ?keeping in step with the Spirit? look like for you in this stage of your journey? (Gal. 5:25)
