It becomes most alive after being the most still

Ann Voskamp writes:

the world says you are what you do. But the Word says you are Whose you are. And what we do ultimately flows out of who & Whose we are.
So our Being must have precedence over our Doing — because it’s our Being that will ultimately express itself in our Doing.

But there’s this Present Christianity, simply being present to Christ, that makes our life unfold like a gift back — a gift that far surpasses any of the work willed out of Performance Christianity.

Because Present Christianity is fuelled by giving Love — and Performance Christianity is fuelled by getting accepted.

I once told that boy of ours: Any dead fish can go with the flow — you have to be intentionally alive to swim against the current.

After that flicker bird at the top of the oldest apple tree in the orchard sits still for what seems like hours…

… after we eat the last of the pie crumbs, and watch from the window, watch the flicker rest amongst the yellowing leaves, you can see it —

how, when it’s time, the flicker flashes and unfolds and unfurls and takes to the sky—

how it becomes the most alive only after being the most still.