Sunday, August 14, 2011

Psalm 46:10 is a verse that God has brought me back to over and over again during the last 37 years, but it wasn't until just a few months ago that I noticed the comma. For 37 years, I read the verse as "be still and know" as if the two could somehow be done simultaneously. In the busyness that is me, multi-tasking seems normal - but I've now been confronted with the comma. A comma calls for a pause, signals a sequential occurance, or even a progression in thought. God is teaching me that every minute part of scripture is purposeful and wrought with meaning. First: be still - forget the todo's, the worries, and the unfinished tasks; ignore the world's clamor, the tube, the music and the phone; stop the hurried pace and the 100 mph racing of the mind. BE STILL - a command or the soft-spoken whisper? More and more it seems to me that my Father is holding me in His arms and whispering "shhh now my child, be still." Second: and know - be fully aware, understand, comprehend to the level of application. What does it mean to KNOW God? Do I live with the full realization of God's Holiness? Do I live out a life of awe at the immensity of who God is? The faith of a child seems to be so much closer to this KNOW - the child who says, "God is soooooo big, He is bigger than anything!" Am I fully aware? Do I really understand? ... or have I oversimplified my God? God, in His mercy, calls me to be still, and know... - to show me again that He is holy, awesome, mighty, righteous, all-powerful, glorious, unchangeable, unfathomable... Shhhhh, He whispers - BE STILL now my child, now let me remind you again of who I AM. I AM He who said, "have no other gods before me." I AM He who said, "come to me all who labor." I AM He who formed you. I AM He who bought you with blood. I AM He who is doing a mighty work in you. I AM He who loves you. No, He is not someone you mess with or oversimplify. He is the one who spoke the universe into existence and retains full control. Yes, He's got the whole world in His hands, but as for me? He's my daddy, I'm His child. He holds me in His mighty and safe arms - and that simply blows my mind!