Stillness

I recently joined a girls group where we challenge each other to focus on a particular Bible verse or an idea like “patience” for a week. During that time, we each study on our own, read the Bible, read other sources, pray, and just watch how God applies the concept to our daily lives. We journal the insights we receive, then we get together and share what we’ve experienced and learned. This last week’s topic verse has been, “Be still and know that I am God,” from Psalm 46:10.

“Being still” is not something I do very well, so this was a great topic for me. My journal pages have filled with verses, quotes, thoughts, questions, prayers, and poems as I’ve begun to wrestle through what it means in my life right now to be still and know that God is God.

I’ll share one of my thoughts from my journal with you. This actually was prompted by an old journal entry that I wrote when I was researching fragrance for a devotional:

In Elizabethan times, the woman of the house might have a “still room.” It was a place where she prepared items for the cleanliness and health of the body and the home. Flowers and herbs would be hung from the rafters. A table top would include a mortar and pestle for preparing fragrant mixes.

I like the idea of a still room, but one of a different kind. What I think of is a place where I can find quiet and stillness, where I can get away from the fast pace and demands of the day and be still before God. I need that in my life—a time or place where I can find Him and allow Him to renew me, change me, teach me.

In my journal I also wrote about other analogies of the Elizabethan still room. You might see those in the above description too . . . but back to stillness.

I have a “still room” now—a place where I can go deeper with the One who calls me to stillness; where I can listen and wait and see if he has something to say to me; or where I can just be in his presence enjoying who he is and who he has created me to be. Yep, God and I have had some pretty amazing times together in my still room.

I’m wondering what your experiences and challenges with stillness have been. In this fast-paced world, do you sense a need to slow down and be quiet before God? What has worked for you in trying to intentionally make that a part of your week? What would your still room look like? Please share!

Jan
www.choose2livefree.com/
www.jankern.com/

Drifting

It’s easy to drift away from God. Things happen, like homework and boyfriends and girl friends and parents.

Suddenly you wake up one day and realize God just isn’t there. You’ve been going through the motions of going to church or praying or reading the Bible, but you don’t feel God, He’s not there with you, He doesn’t speak to you. And you haven’t heard from Him in a long time.

Maybe you don’t really feel like getting back with God. You’ve done okay without Him for a while, so what’s the point? Or maybe He hasn’t come through for you in other things, and you’re feeling a bit resentful.

Obviously this post isn’t going to mean anything to you unless you think there really is something that might be wrong in the fact you don’t feel close to God anymore. You know it’s a hole in your life, but you just can’t muster up the energy or the desire to go seeking Him.

Here’s a thought for you to cling to: Even if you’ve drifted from God, He has never left you.

Write it on your bookbag, tape it to your computer monitor. God has never left you alone.

But what do you do now?

Go back to the Word. Yeah, it might seem dumb since you might have been reading the Bible for months now and God hasn’t spoken to you at all. But just try it.

Take a lesson from the monks—try lectio divina. I’m going through this book right now and it’s really surprising. God really does speak when we just shut up.

(You don’t have to use that book, there are lots of others if you search Amazon or Christianbook.com)

Pray first. Just a short prayer. Try to open your heart to God.

Then, take a passage from the Bible—maybe a Psalm. Read it through once, slowly. Read it through again, slowly. Read it through a third time, slowly.

Each time you read, open your heart to what God might want to have jump out at you. Study the words, see nuances and meanings. Really observe the text and keep an eye out for what seems to strike you, or just nudge you.

Then close your eyes and sit in silence. Try not to babble in your head. Just be still. Don’t let your mind wander, try to focus on what you’ve just read.

Sometimes your thoughts will drift to things that convict you. Sometimes you’ll hear God speaking to you. Sometimes you’ll just feel a gentle presence. Sometimes you won’t feel anything at all except maybe peace and a sense of rest.

A restored relationship with God takes time. Work at it. Keep striving for Him. He promised that if we search for Him with all our hearts, we’d find Him. Hold Him to that, and keep searching.

My Secret Fantasy

I have this secret fantasy and I think it needs to finally come out of the closet. Well, come out of the closet if the closet were my brain. Which sounds weird, but…anyway, here’s my secret fantasy:

At some point in my life, I’ll be sitting (perfect posture, of course) in my bedroom, wearing the most beautiful dress ever, my hair will curl in perfect waves down my back and I’ll be doing something impressive, like reading the dictionary.

Suddenly, out of the blue, there will be this slight rattling against my window and I’ll dash to look out it and see the most handsome guy ever standing there, tossing little pebbles up at the window (small enough to not break it, big enough to make some noise). And of course, he’ll be holding a bouquet of white daisies. He’ll grin at me with an adorable, dimpled smile, help me climb down a trellis of fragrant pink roses and take me on the most romantic date ever recorded.

Sigh. There. It is out. Here’s why this is completely unrealistic:
1. My bedroom is on the first floor. This means no trellis. Actually, outside my window is a devastatingly beautiful display of rocks and lizards.
2. I don’t typically dress like that to sit in my room.
3. Perfect posture? Are we kidding?

I’m hoping that by sharing this secret fantasy, there will be more out there who understand this or have even had it. Or maybe not. Maybe I’m a little wacky in the head.

Here’s something else to consider: As amazing as this fantasy is, it’s not real.

I can hear you now: Duh.

Sometimes I get so caught up in how I imagine things should go, that when they don’t go that way, what do you think happens? Right. I get horribly disappointed. Who wants to live their life horribly disappointed?

Worse than all of this, how often do I imagine how God should be? Or what He should be doing in my life right now? I think He should bring a perfect fairytale ending to my crazy life and it doesn’t happen. I think He should write out the answer to every question I ask in the sky (how cool would that be?).

And yet, God asks that we trust Him. In Psalms it says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Be Still. That’s a hard command for me. I like to Be Busy or Be Loud or Be Shopping.

Be still. God is God and we aren’t. He holds the universe in His hands and yet notices when a bird with a brain the size of a pea dies. How much more will He care for you?

An Erynn-translation to a popular passage. But it is true. And that is no fantasy.