For my birthday, my husband gave me a Fitbit.  (Which I had asked for!) I did some research and decided I wanted the Charge 3 and joined the zillion or so people on planet earth to be wearing what’s basically a fancy pedometer on my wrist. I’ve carried a Fitbit “One” for years so I’m no stranger to the power of the Fitbit, but this newer, more computer-y version does so much more than tell me when I’ve reached those sometimes elusive 10,000 steps a day. It can wake me up in the morning, tell me how well I slept through the night, how many flights of stairs I’ve climbed, whether I’ve reached my optimum movement per hour, how many calories I’ve burned, miles I’ve walked, what the weather’s like and I’m sure there are more, but I’m kind of in a Fitbit daze, as I am with most new electronics, so basically I just use it to…..count my steps.

But there’s another feature that I can’t seem to stop checking……it’s the little number that not only tells me at any moment what my heart rate is, but shows a tiny heart above it that beats along with my own.  I can’t say I’ve ever really paid much attention to my heart rate before. That is……until now. There’s something about watching my beating heart on my wrist that keeps making me want to check it. Mind you, it’s never been out of a normal range, so there’s no reason for me to keep checking, but it’s just there….beating away on my wrist….and somehow I suddenly have a deep need to monitor my heart rate!

So, this is why I’m writing about Fitbits this evening in a Lenten meditation….

It’s been a day…. Not a horrible day, just a day in which some things could have gone better and I had to alter course several times. I had definite goals for the day, but found myself having to recalculate my time and re-calibrate my attitude!

I didn’t settle at my computer to write until late this evening and didn’t have a single idea rattling around in my head. So I did what I always do when I come to the end of myself…..I closed my eyes, dropped my head in my hands and finally…..finally……talked to God.

I told Him about my day and reminded Him that writing these 40 days was part of His big idea too, so if He wanted to throw something my way, I’d surely appreciate it. =) And then, after emptying my head of all the detours of the day, I was finally still. Just…..still. And you know what? In a matter of moments, I felt heard and regarded and loved. Those were the best moments of my entire day! As I asked God to forgive me for giving Him so little time from this day and also asking Him why it seems to take so many words for me to finally get to stillness, my eye caught the little beating heart on my wrist.

There are just so, so many things demanding our attention throughout the day, many really great and helpful things, (like monitoring your heart rate) but if we just keep receiving more and more and more of even the good stuff……when will we be still? Is that maybe why we struggle to hear God sometimes? As I settled my mind and heart in His presence, it was only seconds before I began to feel the familiar peace that always meets me in that place. And not only peace, but gratitude as I began to be aware of the blessings of this day, and there were many!

I’ll keep wearing my Fitbit and will even keep looking at that beating heart on my wrist, but when I do so, I’ll be reminded to take moments in the day to close my eyes, take a deep breath and experience the peace that comes from time with God, re-calibrating my heart to match His.

Oh, the things we learn when we stop flailing about and just allow ourselves to be held for awhile. =)

Always learning with you,

Shellie <3

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Just Be Held 

Casting Crowns