Life's Missing Ingredient: Being Still

By BILL MURRAY

It is to no one's surprise that we live in an age marked by a technological obsession. Children and adults spend so much of their time in front of a screen, whether it be for school or work, free time, or otherwise. In light of this obsession, I have found that all of us, and, in particular, youth, are starving for Jesus Christ.

“Abide in Hope” happened to be the theme of Camp Summit this year. And, since week two of Camp Summit, this theme is something I have found worth chewing on and returning back to. Truly our hope is found only in Jesus Christ. Our hearts are thirsting for the one who can truly quench them. Our hope found in Jesus is a hope that the world can never give and, thus, a hope the world can never take away. And this should give us comfort and joy!

Recently, I concluded my first year working as a parish director of youth ministry of St Charles Borromeo and Holy Redeemer parishes on the eastern front of the diocese, and I must say this first year has truly been a blessed year. And, if there was a phrase to perfectly summarize all that happened during this past year of youth ministry, it is: “Sitting still with Jesus.”

Sitting still can be a difficult thing, whether a person is young or old. Yet, it is precisely when we sit still that we can recognize the Lord and then surrender all that we are and have to him.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Effectively, many of us live our lives as if we were each our own deity, thinking that we can just go and go. We have pushed God to the side and have decided on our own terms how our life should be. Being still makes us feel uneasy, and it makes us feel like we are not in control. At all costs, we would rather keep ourselves busy doing things than be still.

The famous quote of Blaise Pascal rings true in our souls: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

At younger and younger ages, I see people with social anxiety unable to converse with people without wearing earbuds while listening to music. I see young people whose free time is swallowed up by endless hours of video games, only to be followed by YouTube videos. Or, I see young people keeping their schedules endlessly busy, deceiving themselves into thinking they are doing worthwhile things, but, deep down, they are running away from being still.

As I continue my work as a director of youth ministry, the Holy Spirit continues to double down on this theme of wasting time with God, otherwise said, being still. In a previous article of mine, published in March, I wrote about the youth ministry’s tendency toward activism, and the need for this tendency to be uprooted. Ultimately, this activism stems from our inability or refusal to be still and our unwillingness to abide in Jesus, who is our hope.

There is much that is lacking in the world, especially considering the perversities of this technocratic age, but we can proceed with confidence knowing that the Lord desires our good more than we do. Considering the plagues of the youth, it can be easy to be discouraged and rush into doing more things, more exciting things, more busy things; but what we all need is to sit still with Jesus. Let’s not be afraid of introducing our youth to the freedom which is only brought in being still. We can have full confidence as Scripture reminds us in the book of Exodus, “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still” (Ex 14:14).

Bill Murray is the director of Youth Ministry for the Redeemer Saints parish cluster of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Charles and Holy Redeemer in Eyota.