Be Still

Be still and know that I am God…

­Flathead Lake, Montana
©2010, Tony Reynolds

I’m personally in need of being reminded of this daily, hourly; would you believe, moment-by-moment?

That’s because try as I might, it is all too EASY for me to forget where my true strength lies: in my Lord and Savior, not in my own effort. Like Peter, I all too often take my eyes of the Master and focus instead on the waves raging around me, only to find myself sinking deeper and deeper into depression and self-pity. I wrote this meditation a couple months ago when I read this verse as part of my morning Scripture reading. From there, the thoughts just flowed. It was a time when I was worried about the future and felt guilty about the past, unable to focus on enjoying the present as I was squeezed between the two extremes of shoulda-beens and what-ifs.

I cannot change the past. I cannot affect the future. I only have today. God says to me:

Be still from fretting anxiety
Be still from trying to be good
Be still from being morally superior
Be still from seeking your own will
Be still from trying to measure up
Be still from wanting to fix things
Be still from regret about the past
Be still from worrying about the present
Be still from fearing the future
Be still from judging your neighbor
Be still from condemning yourself…

Cease your incessant striving…

Be still and know that I AM God.
I will be exalted in the heavens,
I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

My prayer is that this will be your prayer as well, that God will use this in your heart to calm your spirit as He makes room for His Spirit to work inside you, in the Name of the One who is able to save, even Jesus, AMEN.

God’s “Ta Da!”

Isaiah 29:17-19

¹⁷ In just a very short time
Lebanon will turn into an orchard,
and the orchard will be considered a forest.
¹⁸ At that time the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll,
and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness.
¹⁹ The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;
the poor among humankind will take delight in the Holy One of Israel.

Life in the Bud

A writer in my critique group has a delightful character named Nicholas in her children’s book. He’s a bug who loves to spin on his shell and drives everyone crazy with his jumping about. When his sister is just about fed up, he jumps up and yells, “Ta da!”

This time of year, with the early dark and the late dawn, life can feel heavy and slow. We’re often pinned indoors. Many people work long hours so they may never see the sun or get outside while it’s above the horizon. It can be discouraging.

I love to examine the shrubs in Winter. From inside they don’t look like much, but when you get up close you can see life swelling along the branches. Camellias especially have fat, swollen buds of the most vibrant green (with pink, white and red blossoms furled inside). If not blossoms, you can see the small pods on branches that will unfold into a haze of leaves once the days lengthen: Spring’s “Ta Da!” The life is in there, ready for the right conditions, protected. In the mean time, the plants will rest, store energy, and deepen their root systems so they can sustain the display when it’s time.

The Jews of Palestine must have been very discouraged as they waited in the long winter of silence before the unfurling of God’s blossom: Jesus. But there were small signs – a word, a gift, a revelation or saving action given by God along the way. The buds were swelling on the branch for those who watched closely.

Let us wait in hope, attentive. It’s dark outside, but the stage is set. Soon, there will be angels, fanfare, a birth! Heaven’s unfurling, God’s “Ta Da!”

Advent Week Three: Slow Grandparents

Grandparents can be slow. They drive slow. They move slow. They walk slow. At least that’s the way it can seem to an eleven-year-old. But they can also teach a life-lesson on waiting in the darkness that I need to be reminded of during Advent.

Advent Week Three: In God’s Time

This Advent season I have been quietly meditating at the long timeline of life events. Anne-Marie wrote of her family waiting twelve long years for healing to come to her son’s life threatening struggle with allergies and asthma. Advent focuses on the pregnancies of two women, one of whom had waited a lifetime for a child. I understand all to well the waiting that comes in the long periods between promise and gift.

Avent Week One: Inklings

Each Spring, the asthma attacks had grown more unpredictable, more resistant to the rescue meds.  After the big attack, we were afraid to leave our son alone for an instant.  Even my eldest, who rarely spoke about his brother’s condition, said, “What are we going to do next Spring?”  

Of our two children, the older most often wanted to sit at home, while the sickly one poured over books on the Amazon and Egypt.  Our hearts ached.  We watched him lie on the couch and look through the window, and wondered as Mary wondered, “How can this be?”

Advent Week One: Not Hollywood

In a blockbuster movie, the camera would linger on Mary’s face, or on baby Isaac with Sarah.  The light would be all glowy, and then…fade to the end music.  But the reality of the Biblical texts is more rough and complex.  Abraham would soon be called to hold a knife against Isaac’s throat, and Mary would receive another word from God.  “A sword will pierce your soul also.”

Before that, she and Joseph would flee with the babe from murderous Herod.

Flight into Egypt - Christina Sheppard, 1980

Where does the journey end for these good souls? For us?

Advent Week One: Just Before Dawn

Image: Flandrum Hill

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.  Isaiah 9:2

How do we hold on, in the gathering dark, to the promises God has made us?  To the hope He has given, when word has not yet become flesh, and gift is not yet given?  How do we attune our ears and eyes to the signals that hope is about to arrive?