Be still, and know that I am God
Psalm 46:10
There are so many good verses in this
Psalm, so many things I could write about today. But it was those two little
words that really caught my attention. Be still.
We live in a busy, fast-moving world. In town, the speed limit in most places is 40 mph; on the highway it's 70. I know of a couple of interstates here in Texas where they have raised the speed limit to 80 mph...which is good when you're traversing 300 miles of absolutely nothing! We have drive-through windows at restaurants, and microwaves in most of our kitchens. Last night I had a baked potato for dinner. What would have taken at least an hour in the days of conventional ovens took five minutes in the microwave. And under certain circumstances, I have been known to peer into the microwave impatiently wondering why two-and-a-half minutes was passing so slowly!
We have access to instantaneous communications. Instead of writing a letter by hand on paper made from real trees, sealing it in a self-addressed stamped envelope, and sending it by postal service that might take a week to get it to its destination, I can spend 30 seconds typing an email and hit send...knowing that within seconds, the recipient will have received my note. And instead of having to wait for them to go to the mailbox, retrieve their mail, sort through it, open mine, spend several minutes trying to decipher my chicken scratch, and then hopefully send a reply that will reach me in the next seven days, my correspondent can simply hit reply, type out an answer, and voila! What used to take two weeks has taken (optimistically) two minutes!
With the right service, you can carry a phone in your pocket to any spot on the planet and still be reached by those who want to talk to you. Of course, you can also screen your calls and turn your phone off if you don't want to be reached, allowing people to leave voice mail. If we don't have the time for a full-blown conversation, we can thumb out a quick text with lots of abbreviations and iconography. (although carrying on whole conversations this way can grow tedious). Instead of a five minute phone conversation to elicit a yes or no response, we can simply text. And it's convenient. That same phone can give you access to the information superhighway, because we are living in a digital age that needs no hardwired connection. Go to any number of news websites and you can find out what is going on worldwide in a matter of minutes. Use any number of search engines and you can find any piece of information that interests you.
Yeah, it's a fast paced world where things can change in a heartbeat...and you can know about them almost instantaneously. But in a faith based world, sometimes the real point is the wait.
I can communicate my data now. But sometimes I have to wait for the reply from the Highest Power.
I can make my requests known unto God, and even envision how He might answer. But sometimes character is built in the waiting.
I can be in the fiercest struggle of my life, in the deepest dark valley, tossed about on the raging waves of life's ocean, calling out to God and wondering why He has not arrived at my beck and call.
I can lay out all the truths of God's Word, and still be puzzled that the Word has not had an immediate result.
And while I'm calling out to God in the midst of my hurry, desperate in my hour
of need, God is speaking in a still, small voice: Be still.
Stop your crying and calling and caterwauling. Be still.
Stop your planning and your figuring. Be still.
Stop struggling and fighting and straining. Be still.
Stop your running pursuit. Be still.
Stop talking and listen.
Stop thinking and hear what God has to say.
Sit down.
Close your eyes.
Be still.
"How long?" you might ask. Be still.
"God, I'm kinda busy here. I need an answer and I need it now. I really need for you to get off your throne and do something." Be still.
"But what am I supposed to do while I'm sitting here?" Be still.
"Be still? And then what?"
And know that I am God!
It is enough.
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