I’m a big fan of David. The David of the Bible. Yes, that prolific spoken word artist who was also a master harpist, a warrior King and a murderous adulterer.

So bloody were the hands of David from warding off assailants while he fled a jealous crazed king and from wars he waged to secure his rule when he himself became king, that God forbade him to build the famed temple of Jerusalem (first built in 957 BC).

Yet and in spite of all this, when God described David, He didn’t look at the externals. Instead God said, I sought after David because he’s “a man after my own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14).

It’s no wonder, because David was all heart. Whether he fought or he loved, whether he schemed or he wrote, he was 100% heart.

The record we have of David’s life showed that he never really had a season of peace. For much of his early adulthood he was fending off attempts on his life by a wildly out of control king. Then when he became king, he was constantly warding off attacks on his kingdom. Yet amidst the tumultuous times of his life, David wrote.

He wrote poetic lines like: “commune with your own heart and be still” (Psalm 4:4).

In other words, rest in stillness and undertake/arrest your thoughts in awareness.

If David could find mindfulness—to be in a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present—while all around him is unrest, then certainly so can we.

I’d like to share just 3 lessons I’m learning on this journey to living in the moment:

1. Being intentional to stop doing and focus on just being. Writing is one way to help me do that.
2. Knowing that I am not my thoughts. I try to observe my thoughts without judging them and this way I don’t get lost in my mind and I’m able to appreciate the living present.
3. This I know to be true: worrying about the future and ruminating about what’s past is one sure way to squander what precious moments I am granted in life.

“I have known a great many troubles”, said Mark Twain, “but most of them never happened” he concluded.

Shabbat Shalom. What better day than today—Sabbath—to rest in stillness. Give your mind a break from the rat race of this week.

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You may also like: the tranquility of Sabbath peace; the blessings of Sabbath worship; the refreshing of Sabbath rest; those Selah moments of pause like mini-Sabbaths that can be taken throughout the week; the joy of Sabbath reflection; the harmony between humanity and nature that is affirmed in the Sabbath grace; and the science behind the Sabbath.

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In creative solidarity, Dee