😶Sometimes Obedience Looks Like Silence😶

One of the strangest things God has taught me in this season is how to keep my mouth shut.

And anybody who knows me understands that this may qualify as documented evidence of a miracle. 😂

I used to believe that if something was misunderstood, I needed to explain it. If someone had the wrong version of the story, I needed to correct it. If somebody said something sideways, I certainly knew how to turn my head sideways and answer it.

But God started teaching me something I didn’t particularly enjoy learning:

Not everything requires my response.

Sometimes obedience is speaking.

Sometimes obedience is moving.

Sometimes obedience is standing your ground.

And sometimes obedience is knowing perfectly well what you could say—and hearing God tell you not to say a one thing.

That kind of silence isn’t weakness.

It isn’t being afraid to confront somebody. It isn’t allowing people to walk over you. And it isn’t pretending something didn’t hurt.

It’s knowing when the battle isn’t yours.

There’s an incredible amount of peace on the other side of realizing you don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to.

You don’t have to correct every misunderstanding.

You don’t have to convince somebody of your intentions.

You don’t have to defend what God told you to do to somebody He didn’t tell.

And you certainly don’t have to announce everything He’s showing you while He’s still building it.

Some things need to grow in silence.

I’ve learned to move when He says move, speak when He says speak, and—Lord help me—shut the hell up when He says be quiet.

And somewhere in all that surrender, I discovered something I wasn’t even chasing anymore.

Peace.

And then peace made room for joy.

And joy turned into this strange, ridiculous happiness where my life can still have unanswered questions, pending decisions, unfinished projects and absolutely no guarantee about what tomorrow looks like…

and I’m sitting here thinking: I’m happy.

Not because I finally control my life.

Because I finally stopped trying to.