The art of being still

"Do not be afraid. stand firm

and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.

The Lord will fight for you;

you need only to be still." Exodus 14:13-14

My first instinct is to fight, struggle, exert some, any kind of effort. But God asks us to be still. That's different from sitting back and relaxing or taking a break. When I read" be still" I tend to think "rest". But the act of being still is not so simple.

Have you ever tried to be still? Consider yoga poses for a moment. There are some that seem to be so simple, until you actually try them. Then you become aware of how much effort and determination each pose demands. Every muscle works hard against the force of gravity. You are suddenly and excruciatingly aware that unidentified muscles in your body are prone to spontaneous flinching. Your body trembles from the sheer effort and every muscle screams for release.

Source

Be still.

It takes great spiritual muscle to be still at the beginning of each new year. My soul stirs and my mind races.  Analyzing and reflecting on the past year I want to jump into action in the new. I'm anxious to tackle new ventures and projects.  I'm eager to start a new effort to self improve in some area of my life, family, ministry, or finances.  And yet, I know that is precisely when I need to stop, enter into a time of prayer and fasting, turn to God and ask for His direction for the year.

Be still.

He's calling me to a higher plan. Taming my stubborn, directionless will and strengthening every inch of my soul. He asks me to focus and turn inward, and allow Him to do the needed adjustments. If I would plant myself deep and stretch myself, He promises to fortify me and strengthen all that is weakness in me.

Be still, He says, don't move until the noise dissolves, and the world melts away. Breathe deep, clear your life and mind of all the clutter and focus only on Me. And finally firm and steady, His voice is clear and comforting, peace and confidence.

Be still my soul! Be still heart! He is working out your rescue! He is drawing you near. He is fortifying you whole: body, mind and soul.

My Provider. My Protector. My Guide. He goes out before me. He stands guard behind me.

Be still my soul! Listen. He beckons, "Come, talk with me" and my heart replies, "Lord, here I am." (Ps 27:8)

In Heavenly Peace

My heart has been begging my mind to slow down and focus on the intent of this Christmas season:  Advent, a time of reflection, introspection, quiet and rest.

But it wasn't until Friday, that all the little things that seemed so urgent, were abruptly placed into perspective. 

Shop for one more holiday trinket, or pause for a mommy-daughter lunch?  Get on top of my year-end reporting, or actually get home in time for dinner with the family? Holiday party or quiet time with my 4 year old boy who is feeling under the weather?

Suddenly these questions seem ridiculous.

There is silence as we mourn with the Newtown families and community.  We are bound to them in prayer as we empathize with their unfathomable loss. We are reminded of how fragile life is and how important it is to embrace every second of it with our loved ones. 

And we wonder if "safe" exists for any of us anymore.

Micah 5:4  He will stand and shepherd his flock...and they shall live securely.

Because of His birth, life, death and resurrection, we can live secure in the knowledge that He waits for us.  He is always close.   He is desperate for us to invite Him in.  Regardless of what we are living through right now, there is comfort and security in his deep and fierce love for us.

Our Shepherd feels our anguish. He knows the pain of losing a child to a terrible death at the hand of sin.  He humbled himself and lived it first hand, so that we could receive the promise of His restoration, and live in the confidence of life everlasting without sin and without pain. 

In this season of faith and family and friends, this tragedy is all the more cruel.  But because He came, we have the promise and assurance of a time and place where we can live, and love, and forgive.

As we focus on the birth of the Redeemer, hold on to the promise.  Be consoled.  Be assured.  Be at peace. 

I shall dwell secure.
He shall be my peace.


Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,
Your Children
source
 

Nonversations

I blame fear and anxiety, my usual scapegoats, for the bitter fountain of words that raced across my mind.  Sitting in the the cold, sterile examination room of the ER, the waiting unsettled me.  Disappointed again by the doctor's inability to pinpoint the cause of my pain that afternoon, I turned to God in frustration.

I'm not sure what combination of words flowed that afternoon.  I couldn't tell you what was said or how long this went on.  I can tell you what I didn't do.  I never paused long enough to listen.  I never stopped to consider who it was I was addressing.

Margaret Feinberg calls this "nonversation" in her new book Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God, and I am guilty of it.

In the privilege I have of speaking with God as my most intimate friend, I forget that He is the most High God.  Where He graciously cares for the minutiae of life, I mistakenly assume He needs me to regurgitate partially processed, emotional, thoughtless prayers. As if such an offensive offering would move Him.

She presents a question:  How often have I rattled on with God and said nothing at all? It reminded me of another question, out of the Catechism,  "when we pray do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or out of the depths of a humble and contrite heart"?

The point being, are we having one sided conversations with God?  Are we so busy thinking up fancy phrases, complicated formulas, or so self absorbed that we are just plain nonsensical in what ends up being a string of soap box moments, rather than an intimate exchange?

Sometimes God lets me wander into darkness so that he can get my attention.  When there are no answers, when I feel lost and helpless, that is when I finally slow down, reach out and stop to listen.

When I stop prattling on about being afraid, how it's unfair, why I don't deserve any of this,   exhausted and spent, I become a child again sitting in the lap of her heavenly father.  In the sure comfort of his embrace, I am ready and willing to hear his will for my life and see the lessons he has for me. 

As I breathe in His presence, and drink in His Word, I am awakened to the fact that I have a Father that knows my name. He shows me how in every moment, at every turn, He is there.  Then he reveals how all the little pieces of my life, especially the ones that didn't make sense, were all working for my good. 

I stand amazed at His mercy, faithfulness, and love orchestrating every movement in the fugue of my life. Overwhelmed, I relent. 

Less of me, more of you God.

So often, this simple statement of humility, this desperate hungry petition becomes the damn to the plethora of words that want to burst out.

Less of me, more of you God.

That's when I experience His presence so tangibly, so beautifully that I would be happy not to say another word, if I could dwell in that place all the days of my life.


******

It was such a privilege to get to read a preview of this new book releasing in December and I cannot wait to add this book to my collection.  As always, Margaret takes us on a journey of self-analysis rich with masterfully painted pictures for her reader's minds.  Pre-order yours today!


 

Keep your heart slow

"Don't react. Instead respond out of wisdom, grace and love."  -M. Feinberg

Call it the mama-bear in me, but I certainly am one to react.  Over the years, I have learned to keep my initial rolling reactions beneath the surface.  Mostly.  Ok, perhaps only sometimes.

But I certainly know that those reactions usually come from an emotional place.  And usually that place is a tangled web of incoherent sporatic experiences, memories or unresolved thoughts.  My brain's effort to problem solve, to self preserve  or make sense out of the senseless.

In my humanity, I am apt to get it wrong.

More often than not, my secondary reaction is much more reasonable, rational, maybe even wise.

I am loving the new song by Mumford in Sons.  To me it epitomizes the exact process my mind goes through. The racing tempo of the chorus representing the frantic, hurried pace at which I tend to respond.  The verses the slow, wise revelations.

If I can hold back the surge, my fleshly impulse to react, then my mind can step out of its mental race and my thoughts can reduce their pace.  No longer breathlessly sprinting to a destination, I am free to stroll through garden's of wisdom, grace and love.

In God's garden of prayer, scripture and wise counsel, the answers are never wrong.  The answers are gifts of peace and reassurance.

That's not to say that the pressure behind the damn grows quiet.  The surge still threatens to erupt.  Even when I've resolved that I need to wait.  In the waiting there are moments when your mind's voice becomes a little frantic. Fearful.  The pressure from the surge mounts.

I will wait.  I WILL wait.

Ah the waiting is never a passive process, usually requiring monumental efforts of strength and will to pass through.

When in fear or anxiety your heart is pounding so hard that it deafens you.  Stop. Don't react. Breath.  And as your heart slows, and the world quiets down, that is where you'll hear God's voice rise up in answer to your situation.

Keep your hearts slow my friends.




So I'll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
That tethered mind free from the lies

But I'll kneel down
Wait for now
I'll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow

Lord, help please & thank you

Dear Lord,

Please help me to be a better mommy - through health challenges, fatigue, economic troubles, work demands, and all demands on my time and mind. Give me strength and wisdom to cherish my treasures, to smell the roses, laugh at gradeschool jokes, to smile more and hug more and never ever miss our devotion time with you.

Grant us peace and grace each day.

Thank you.

Amen.

God is Good....all the time

This is the current quote of a childhood friend of mine. He has it at the end of each email, he tosses it out on facebook every so often. It is his default. It's contagious, and blesses more people than he knows.

Daily I talk to people who have lost their jobs. Friends, acquaintances, family. It's tough when this happens to one person you know and you find yourself trying to encourage, be positive and sympathetic. But multiply it, and daily...well, I'm sure there are lots of you out there who are experiencing this and it just plain hard.

Take today alone - two people I know. One really worries me because her husband has been out of work for a few months now, they have little bitty ones - 4 to be exact, and they were also helping to support his mom. Now what?

The second, well her hubby is at a company that's struggling, and hers was the "steady" job, that she REALLY really enjoyed by the way.

You can't help but read an article or watch the news to hear one heart breaking story after another. Stories of great difficulty and need.

God have mercy. Christ HAVE mercy!

But in the ashes that is the hurt, the difficulty the uncertainty, there is also resilience. A light that still burns in the hearts of those that trust that God will get them through this all....that the end of these tough times will come and will be better than when it all began - Ecc 7:8.

They leave me in awe. They shame and humble me completely. Each day through their adversity, their hope and strength they scream to us all: God is Good, all the time, ALL THE TIME.

Amen. amen...

Wide world of prayer

Without going into too much, I work at a wonderful place that actually pays me to sit down and develop my faith alongside my co-workers.

We're currently discussing the importance of prayer in our faith walks. This of course is nothing new, but I was struck by a thought today as I was doing my reading for the discussion.

Prayer has no definition! Mind you - there are components and parts. But I cannot fit "PRAYER" into a box or an equation, into an hour or an explanation. No explanation would suffice to encompass the depth and breadth that is prayer.

So often we lament that we need to pray more, as if prayer doesn't naturally fit into our busy lives and schedules. But prayer is like the breath we take. We cannot live without it. We cannot be without it.

It's purpose is to bring us closer to God. It is being in and around God. It is to think, speak and feel God not only in the moments when we close our eyes, or hide away in our meditation corner or prayer closet. It is being in love with God. It is my heart bursting and yearning for more.

When our every thought, our every step, our every word is deliberately lived to get closer to Him, to know Him better, and to honor Him - without ceasing -there is prayer.

Ponder that.

And this: http://lotsofscotts.blogspot.com/2009/03/prayer-and-vows.html

Hello New Year, Let us Hope and Pray

Not my will Lord, but thine will be done. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Acknowledge the Lord in all thine ways and he shall direct your paths.

If anything is certain, it’s that times are uncertain.

Each new year comes with a new hope and anticipation. Our energies are renewed, what seemed hopeless now seems to be possible. I still think about B. O.'s acceptance speech. It was filled with inspiration and encouraged Americans everywhere that we have the power make change and improve our situation, with hard work. He reassured us that this situation that has spiraled out of control, is no larger than our collective hands. He has placed the responsibility back in our hands.

I’m not naïve enough to believe that no one will try to cast blame, or expect him to change the world single handedly. What I'd like to believe is that his speech made enough people consider that the responsibility to fix what is broken in our nation, in our city’s and communities, and maybe even our personal lives, belongs to each one of us.

As we enter the new year with renewed energy, hoping to lose that weight or improve our finances, deciding that this year we will spend more time with our families, or make a difference in our churches and communities, his words are fuel to a small inner ember that only needs a slight breath of encouragement to ignite into a flame that is contagious, and God help us, effective.

In prayer and anticipation.

A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN

Love this:

O God the Father of mankind, who hast given me these my children, and committed them to my charge to bring them up for Thee, and to prepare them for eternal life: help me with Thy heavenly grace, that I may be able to fulfill this most sacred duty and stewardship.

Teach me both, what to give and what to withhold; when to reprove and when to forbear; make me to be gentle, yet firm; considerate and watchful; and deliver me equally from the weakness of indulgence, and the excess of severity; and grant that, both by word and by example, I may be careful to lead them in the ways of wisdom and true piety.

Pour Thy grace into their hearts, and strengthen and multiply in them the gifts of Thy Holy Spirit, that they may daily grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; and so, faithfully serving Thee here, may come to rejoice in Thy presence hereafter. Amen. --

God, its me.

A girlie-ism I had to jot down:

After a reading of Goodnight Moon, and the usual bedtime prayer of "Now I lay me down to sleep...", I thought it was a good night to start teaching the girlies The Lords Prayer. We were going to start with the first two lines. This is how it went:

Me: Our Father who art in heaven
Girlie 1: My father who are in heaven
Me: Hallowed be thy name
Girlie 1: My name is (fills in her name here.)
Girlie 2: I'm (fills in her name here.)!

Guess the first time around they thought they needed to introduce themselves first.

Classic!