Be Still part 1
I want to focus on two Bible verses in this Rant series in order to (hopefully) edify y'all a little bit. And I'm just going to give the two verses I want to link right from the jump. Ready? Mark 4:39, "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." Boom. And here's all I want to say today: The fire in you is always hotter than the fire you're in. Being still is about rebuking the wind and the sea (the storm) INSIDE you. So often we let what's going on around us dictate what goes on inside us. We let things wreck us when in reality those things don't even matter. I remember pretty clearly when my other mom ("step" mom) was teaching a class at Bible college and she gave us some really good advice: Before you get mad about something, think about whether or not you'll even care about it in a year. Its mind over matter, right? If you don't mind... it doesn't matter. But I admit sometimes this is easier said than done. Sometimes we just have this knee jerk reaction. This flash of anger, or sadness, or whatever that is almost uncontrollable. (Notice I said ALMOST uncontrollable. Because, believe it or not, self control is one of the fruits of the Spirit.) We get all wound up and we end up running around like chickens with their heads cut off. And when that happens we tend to make things worse instead of better. We might be trying to help, but remember my theme lately? Sometimes less is more. Sometimes the least we can do is the most we can do. Sometimes we need to take a deep breath and seek first to understand before we blunder in and inadvertantly do more harm than good. Don't they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions? And you know how I feel about hell as a destination--I think it can be a present reality, but I sure don't think God sends people to any sort of eternal torment--but the point is, sometimes you try too hard and make a bigger mess. I know that's one of my biggest problems. Because when I see a problem, I want to fix it. Right now. Permanently. And while I DO NOT believe God makes us sick in order to... whatever... or anything like that, I DO believe that sometimes we have to go through things in order to learn and grow. And sometimes we make things a lot harder on ourselves when we try to do it all ourselves. We go around and around the mountain, spend a lot of time in the wilderness, because we're unwilling to learn what we need to learn in order to get to where we need to get to. We fight the storm instead of just telling it to be still. We tell God how big the storm is, instead of telling the storm how big God is. We let anger comsume us instead of being consumed by love. We, again, run around like chickens with our heads cut off instead of being still. Calm what's on the inside (and yes, that's what the next few days are going to be about) and it effects what's on the outside. That's how we live: From the inside out. What you believe is inside WILL come out. So you need to know and believe what's inside. What's REALLY inside. And you need to let it out! Be still, and be cool, calm, and collected!