Be Still!

Photo courtesy of Sharon Fox of Lincolnton, NC

Last Christmas, my husband presented me with an unusual gift.  It was a square throw-pillow with the words “Be Still” printed on it.  I love it.  It sits quietly on my couch now, reminding me not to let the random hurry and scurry of daily life keep me distracted.

God says the same thing through the Psalmist in Psalm 46:10. 

“Be still; I will be exalted; the nations and the earth will know me.” (paraphrase mine) 

Essentially, God is telling us that He will be known “without,” or “in spite of” our well-meaning actions.  In fact, perhaps our frantic hurried-ness to “do the right thing” takes away from God’s glorious reputation in the world of human beings.

Part of the “being still” is having a Sabbath time each week.  “Time to be created instead of creator,” says Abraham Joshua Heschel.  God took a Sabbath after creating the world (Genesis 2:2-3).  Think about verse 3 and how you can stamp value on all you have done in the previous 6 days.  Think about how to make those things holy.

Well Done Not Well Said

According to many scholars, the last letter Paul wrote was Second Timothy. In it, he gives some hard-nosed instructions to a young man. Among other things, the letter talks about how a person should live. I once heard someone say,

“When I come before the Lord, I don’t want him to say, ‘Well said, good and faithful servant.’ I want Him to say ‘Well done.’”

The Bible says that the Word became flesh. The Bible doesn’t say that the Word became more words. As Christians we are to be the body of Christ, not just one big talking mouth.

Five hundred years ago, a group of people rediscovered the Bible and the idea of faith alone. They described faith as a fire. They described works as the heat from the fire. You can’t create the heat without the fire. But if there is no heat, you can’t help but wonder if there is really a fire. The two things, fire and heat (or faith and works) go together. We will be remembered not just for what we believe, but for what we do.

God Keeps Losing

God lets Abraham win the argument over how many righteous people need to be in the city in order to save it. God lets Jacob prevail in the wrestling match.  God lets Moses win the discussion over whether to destroy the people in the wilderness. Our Lord takes the position of the disciples in the talk with the Canaanite woman concerning what is fed to the children and not to the “dogs.” Then Jesus lets the woman win the argument.

God sends his Messiah to free his people from the oppressors, and then it looks as though those colonizers actually win, and they execute the Messiah.

We look to the divine throne at the end of the Bible and we expect to see a victorious lion, but instead we see a lamb, who seems to have been killed.

What is going on here?

God is God, but it sometimes looks as though he allows himself to lose. Mothers and fathers and lovers can understand this sometimes…