Let Nothing Disturb You

“Let nothing disturb you”

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

St. Teresa of Avila’s beautiful prayer and advice is so simple but so very difficult in my everyday life.

Let nothing disturb me? What about the uncertainty of a global pandemic? What about financial difficulties or the millionth diaper change or being cut off in traffic or that hurtful comment that just won’t leave my mind?

I find myself wanting to weaken St. Teresa of Avila’s words, or at least ask her to give me a little wiggle room. How about –

“Let a few things, the really stressful and important things, disturb you, but nothing else.”

She shows her purity of heart, though, in this quote that deserves contemplation. What if I lived with such trust in God, that I was truly able to let nothing disturb me?

“All things are passing away.”

A dear friend of mine recently gave me these beautiful words of wisdom when I was anxious about something. She said that when she starts to feel worried or anxious about something, she asks herself if she will still be thinking about this at the end of her life, and the answer is always no. To spend my time worrying about things that will not matter at the end of my life, and to simply realize – “all things are passing away” is the path to peace.

“Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”

There is so much freedom in living from this place of sure confidence that “God alone suffices.” But where in my day-to-day life would an outsider observe how I spend my time or the words I use and say that I believe “God alone suffices”? How often do I really rest in just who He is, who He says that I am, and trust that He will take care of the rest?

There is hope still, though – He is good and He never gives up on me –

“God never changes.”