First, we hope all our moms had a wonderful Mother’s Day! Be assured that God looks down upon you with great love.
We’ve been looking at how Jesus’ call to keep His commandments from yesterday’s Gospel passage (“If you love Me, you will keep my commandments”) is tied to leisure. Leisure is where we particularly come to know God.
Psalm 46 tells us as much – “Be still and know that I am God.” For context, here is more from that Psalm (v 2,10-12):
God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress.
Who stops wars to the ends of the earth, breaks the bow, splinters the spear, and burns the shields with fire;
“Be still and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.”
The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Notice the context is God as our sole (soul?) refuge in distress. God understands that we are often separated from him by fear, anxiety, and doubt. And THAT is especially where he wants us to be still, so that those negative emotions down carry us down a very dark path.
The directive to be still is actually a call to “become stillness” (more on that in the postscript) and carries with it a promise – we will “know that He is God”. Let’s get specific…
When we start to get all stirred up over wounds from our past – mistakes we’ve made, people we’ve may have hurt – God says, ”It’s OK. Be still in that. Let me show you that I am God. There’s nothing from the past that I can’t heal.”
Or we might be gripped by fear of the future – financial issues, health issues, family problems. God says, “Be still in that. Don’t rush into action. Let me show you my plan for your wellbeing.”
And then we have our present trials and hardships. And often, at the center of them is that nagging doubt. It may disguise itself in different ways, but it’s actually the uncertainty of whether God is really there by our side. And God says, “Be still. Let me show you that I am God. Let me show you the wounds in my hands and side. I am with you in your hardship and will not let it overcome you.”
Whenever we are being consumed by fear or doubt or the desire to try to control events to lay hold of the future we desire – we need to engage our will and choose to be still. When we give that offering of trust (and, boy, sometimes it takes everything we have just to wait on the Lord) – He will show us that He is God, because that is exactly what He promised us.
This week is a good time to practice being still. When we’re tempted to jump into action, or go down bad-memory lane, or start fretting about the future, let’s remember to be still … and we’ll know that He is God.
Easter blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith
Postscript: Becoming Stillness
“Be still” isn’t meant in the same way as “be quiet” or “be patient” – it’s not simply a characteristic or behavior that we take on for a moment.
When Steve was a kid, he wasn’t notably patient. But he could muster some patience if the cause was grand enough. As a wee lad he hated going to the department store (back when there were department stores…). But you know what was the last department before the checkout? The toy department (insert majestic music in your head). And in the far corner of those majestic displays of otherworldly joy machines, was the grand-daddy of them all – the matchbox car display. How often Steve was told “Be patient and you’ll get a matchbox car.” Could little Stevie muster up enough patience to earn that prize at the end of 2 hours of gehenna? Two times out of three.
Did that make Steve a patient person? We all know the answer to that.
It was only years later and after some hard lessons in the virtue of delayed gratification that Steve began to grow in the virtue of patience – to take a few furtive steps to becoming a patient person.
In the same way, “Be still” is meant to “become stillness.” It is to change our nature.
If you work hard at medical school, when you finish you will “be a doctor.” If you pledge your life to someone in the sacrament of holy matrimony you will “be a spouse.”
If you spend enough time in communion with God you will become what He is – pure being.
That is to become stillness.