Religious Wall Sits

We squat a lot in religion. We are neither standing nor kneeling, neither leveled nor lifted. We are in a wall sit, straining our muscles to hold the weight of our whole selves while also trying to acknowledge some greater deity. Religious squatting is tiring.

Yes, we are tired. Exhausted, really. We are like travelers in need of a long, hot bath. We need to rest and receive even more than we think we do. It is in the moments we confess the truth, He is God and we are not, that we begin to receive. The squatting posture breaks, the wall-sit collapses, and as we rest upon the earth we are brought back to the origin of our identity.

An outcropping on the Oregon coast overlooks the expanse of the Pacific. From that spot, that last inch of land on the western coast, I sometimes watch the Creator color the sky and animate the wind and the waves. Every time I sit there and watch the sun plunge into the sea, I learn it all over again. That’s my prayer: that witnessing His created world would lead us again and again to a deeper relationship with Him.

Nothing can give rest to our eyes and tune our ears to the Voice of the Creator like time in His studio. This is not a call to retreat from revelation but to be immersed in it. His beauty and our silence allow us to see. May it never be said of us that “those who need rest and clean snow and sky the most” were the last to move.

Where will you go?

Where is that place you long to discover or return to, to be unsettled, to feel small, and to remember who you are?

Author: Zach Elliott

Zach Elliott describes himself as an ordinary man who loves Jesus. Anyone who knows Zach Elliott would describe him as far from ordinary. Zach began his career with Oregon State Police as a Forensic Evidence Technician, then served as a church planter and a pastor before launching V3, a ministry committed to sharing the Gospel and loving the Church. He is a husband, father, speaker, author, and thought leader, engaging the world with a powerful message of hope and restoration in Christ. He has a contagious love of life, finds beauty in the most unlikely places, and loves people with an uncommon depth of respect and honor.

This excerpt is quoted from Zach’s book, Now I See.