CHARLOTTE — Conor Gallagher knows a little bit about stress. As a husband, father of 12 children under the age of 16 and a business executive, he has a full life with serious demands on his time.
In his second book, “Still Amidst the Storm,” Gallagher addresses the stress, anxiety and the non-stop activity of our busy lives that can pull us away from God and rob us of our peace.
He knows from personal experience how each day can be swallowed up by obligations and how concern for the future can eat away at being present to God and others in the current moment.
Gallagher admits he has always been one to journal about his life and his growing family, with hopes of sharing his journals with his children as they grow so they can have written snapshots of their childhood years.
“This book arose out of looking back over those journals,” Gallagher said. “After a while, I began to see a trend in my journaling. The trend was my attempt to find some peace in a pretty anxious world. We live in an absurdly fast-paced world.”
He believes no one has time to do everything that they plan on doing. Everyone is bombarded with too many obligations, and there is just too much technology robbing us of our time.
“I’ve noticed we are just not comfortable sitting down and being still,” he observed. “But I find that is a major part of the solution – to do a lot less – to be home, to have conversations with your spouse and your kids.”
Gallagher says we need to make it a priority to “Be still, be calm, be silent. Let God do a little bit of work on you.”
His book is a reflection of that approach. He uses the Gospel of Mark 4:39, where Jesus stills the tumultuous waters during a storm, as the imagery for what God can accomplish in our lives if we give Him control and our attention.
Gallagher shares that a work of framed art on the wall in his father’s secretary’s office captures this moment in scripture. It has been on the wall for decades, as long as he can remember, giving him much pause for reflection over the years.
“I think that is the perfect imagery for the storm we have going on in our lives,” he explained.
Gallagher suggests three remedies for growing closer to God: living in the present, spending time in silence and learning how to be still.
“In my own life, I have seen people seek (worldly) solutions to their anxiety, their stress or their busyness, wasting so much energy seeking a solution. It breaks my heart to see people seeking a solution that just won’t work,” he said. “People think the trick is to seek worldly remedies, when what God is asking us to do is to be like the sea. He is telling us to be still.”
“Jesus tells us that the peace in our life comes with a true connection with God,” he said. “We find Him in the present moment, in prayer and in silence.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior Reporter
Get the book
“Still Amidst the Storm” by Conor Gallagher, publisher of St. Benedict Press and TAN Books, is available online at www.tanbooks.com. Gallagher is also author of “If Aristotle’s Kid Had an iPod: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Parents.”