I’ve had people ask me about the vampire blog I alluded to
in my last entry (see my previous blog about zombies). I hate to disappoint, but I have something
more pressing that I want to share.
“Be quiet and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 NLV)
How often are you quiet?
Are you quiet in your suffering?
Are you quite in your success, your labor, your resting? What did God mean by “be quiet”? Some translations read: “be still”.
Here is what I know from experience: I am prone to sin, and
“where words are many, sin is not absent.” (Prov 10:19) I know I talk too much
and too soon. But I think there is more
to being quiet, or still, than just silence.
It is calming the busyness of life.
It is removing ourselves from the chaos of TV and emails and texts and
phone calls and reports and social media and bills and insurance and cars and
homes and cleaning and fixing and hobbies and leisure and… You get the idea. Being still and knowing that God is God is
the process of stepping away from everything else to center our souls on what
is most important; what is eternal. (see
Luke 10:38-42 and 12:33-34)
Re-centering is desperately needed, and in our culture, we
need to do it often. Without it we
forget; we loose sight of eternity. We
become caught up and anxious; ungrounded.
We loose our footing and ability to think clearly and make good
decisions. There is power in quieting
our souls. Great power.
In martial arts I have learned how to be calm even with
someone standing across from me who’s sole intention is to physically conquer
me. It seems counter intuitive that I
would seek to be calm at a time like this, but without that calm I am much more
likely to make mistakes. I would also
get tired much faster. With inner
stillness I can think and react clearly.
Panic and fear are my enemies.
I have found this to be very similar to the battles I face
in life. The enemy of my soul stands
across from me threatening me and those I love with destruction. And I know that my adversary is not
powerless. His threats are not empty
(although ultimately I know the end of the story!). But I can either react out of fear, or I can
be centered, trusting in my good God, not fearing any outcome, and using my
power to fight well.
“My power.” What does
that mean? In the same way that I have
been trained in martial arts, I have been trained by God through His Word and my
experience of walking in step with His Spirit (Psalm 18:34). That training instructs me how to trust. I falter in this all the time, but I know it
is where I need to be, and how I get there is by finding my quite place with
God. I let His Spirit and His Word wash
over me and I sink my roots deep into His perfect, unchanging reality of
absolute sovereignty and unconditional love.
This is the secret of the quiet place.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your
own understanding” (Prov 3:5)
