I wasn’t sure if I was closer to throwing up or passing out. Either way, anxiety gripped me so tightly I couldn’t think straight.

My mind drifted back to the moment I lay back in the chair for LASIK surgery.

What did I just agree to do?!?

This time was nothing like having surgery on my eye (while wide awake). I was merely climbing into a hot air balloon.

To fly hundreds of feet above ground…with all my children…in a basket.

Just a basket.

I’m not sure what noise was louder. Perhaps the traffic and the city coming to life at the break of dawn. Perhaps the racing beat of my heart.

I chose to step into the basket.

Sometimes a brave choice offers unexpected beauty. 

Another fifteen minutes on the ground. A seeming lifetime of anxiety. Sometimes we jump and miss the opportunity.

But I stayed in the basket.

We lifted off the ground.

Almost instantly, my fear calmed. I was surprised by the beauty of stillness. I was surprised by the grandeur of silence.

I hadn’t noticed the noise until I couldn’t ignore the silence.

We drifted in the still silence. Just looking, breathing, smiling. Our pilot called us an oversized air molecule. No resistance. No breeze. No movement.

If only I could rise above the noise of life this easily.

Some days are so chaotic in my heart I hardly notice the noise. I press forward in my anxiety and overwhelm, and I miss the opportunity to be surprised by the silence in my heart.

Until I choose to worship through the noise.

“Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”

Psalm 95:6

Worship lifts my heart above the noise.

The beauty of stillness calms me. The grandeur of inner silence surprises me.

Yet, some days I rebelliously refuse to worship.

I refuse to step in the basket because I’m afraid. Because I grip so tightly to the cares of this life I cannot think straight.

It is a brave choice to worship.

Choose courage.

Step into the basket and worship through the noise.

Today’s Seed of Rest

Worship

Turn up some music.