Him.
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
“The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
— Psalm 46:10-11
It’s getting increasingly difficult in a world so LOUD and full of EXCLAMATION!!! to “be still” and let God be God.
It’s increasingly hard, isn’t it?, to pause and sit still, wherever you are or whatever you’re doing, and focus on your breath and be fully in the present moment — that place where you can hear your heart beat in calming, steady rhythm with the heart of God.
Every chance you get, be still, breathe, and hear the quiet, still voice of God.
Had I not learned a long time ago in my spiritual journey to monitor my anxiety — had I not learned to “pray without ceasing” by deeply breathing in the breath of God when I feel my anxiety rising throughout the day and night — I frankly think I’d go full loop.
The great old mystic Meister Eckhart said:
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“There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself, and the recovery of our own silence can begin to teach us the language of heaven.”
“Nothing,” he also said, “in all creation is so like God as stillness.”
At bottom, there is no such thing as the past or the future, both of which we can only know in our imaginations.
But there is pleasant relief from anxiety, even in the midst of chaos, by getting still and breathing and coupling with God in the Here and Now.
Some people have the natural gift of stillness. We call them unflappable. They just seem to know how to breath.
But the gift of stillness, the gift of the Here and Now where God dwells, is available to us all through intentionality, practice, mindfulness — call it what you will.
Seek … be silent … and you shall find rest in the arms of God.
