Stillness: A Practical Spirituality for the Beleaguered
/Right now, in life, we are beleaguered. Riots, protests, a pandemic, doing more with less people at work (i.e. the sickness of production and consumption), information overload, political in-fighting (I say in-fighting because we are all made in the image of God, right?), wild weather (fires, hurricanes, tornadoes…oh my). We are surrounded—on every side, and internally (if we are honest) by things that constantly compete for our attention and under the guise of being alarming (breaking news, this just in, happening now, live, and more). Right now, in life, we are beleaguered.
We do not know what to do and have become terrified and wearied that if we do not listen to these urgencies (and likely horrendous, horrific, or absurdly humorous) headlines at hand we’ll miss something informing how we should live—yet inwardly we are wasting away under the onslaught. The Apostle Paul says the opposite is true for the people of God, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day…” (2 Cor. 4:16). Our increasing incapacity to slow down by increasingly allowing our pace of life to be determined by things around us (external locus of control as psychologists say) is shriveling any sense of this one life we’ve been given to live. Stop. Think about it. Your life is being stolen from you as you watch for the messages meant to tell you how to live or what to be concerned about in this life.
In this lifestyle of frenzied urgency, this wavy Sea of Galilee, that’s becoming the norm we live in—The Normal One—Jesus of Nazareth—God in Our Flesh—steps and with each step stills the wavy seas of our lives. Have we ever invited God to step all over us…? Who’d even think such a thing? Be a doormat? No, surrender the centrality of our life to God. Those who want to know the God whose peace passes all understanding will invite God to dance on their lives like he did on the Sea of Galilee.
You may have never heard the name Jehoshaphat, hereafter, J. It is a strange name. He was one of the king’s over the southern portion of the kingdom of God’s people (i.e. Judah). I’ll recap a story that seems particularly relevant given the beleaguered place we find ourselves in at this time of life. King J was up against an army of a great multitude. He was afraid. He and the people of Judah turned to the Lord in prayer. They got a strange answer, but J had a strange name so makes sense, right? Anyway, King J said, “O our God, will you not execute judgment upon them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” Did you catch that? O our God—a personal sense of relationship with God. Will you not—this personal relationship presumes God will act on their behalf. We are powerless—an admission of their own human limitations before God. We do not know what to do—an admission of being at their wits end. But our eyes are on you—they turn to God as a beleaguered people.
God responds through the Prophet Jahaziel, I’ll paraphrase, listen, all of you—of social rank and no rank. Tomorrow go out and stand before this multitude that is ready to overwhelm you. This battle is not for you to fight; stand your ground—STAND STILL—and see God fight for you.
The story goes on to say the three people groups basically turn on each other and the people of Judah and King J watch—while what they thought would be their demise becomes the evidence of God’s protection before their eyes. They took a chance on God. Maybe, God deserves our being afraid if it means taking a chance on him again?
It’s counterintuitive.
We see life getting crazy, overwhelming, and more than we can handle and we buckle up trying to handle things on our own or just weathering the storm until it passes. We say things that aren’t true like, God won’t put more on you than you can bear. Do we know a God who overwhelms us or overshadows us? And, since when has life ever been what we could handle even on our best days? We are limited human beings who hopefully face our limits at some point. We want to believe we can do this. This only appeals to our self-referential ways of living. How we like to be seen by others. Deep down, our disordered desire to be invulnerable—to live without God in the world (c.f. Eph. 2:12).
Reconsider the story. What was the turning point? Was it God? No. It was Jehoshaphat’s awareness (and this only by God’s presence) that he was afraid (2 Chron. 20:3). Emotions are being welcomed by more of us but there is still much fear about our inner life or emotions not to mention the even deeper reality of The Spirit. This is more true for some than others, yet in my experience, the deeper we go within, the more frightening it can be for all of us. King J’s fear, or limits, precipitated his turning toward the Lord. I don’t buy people’s calling Christianity a crutch. I think they just haven't sufficiently allowed themselves to experience their own brokenness (before trying to fix it or muscle through it themselves) and need for a crutch or they have another crutch they won’t admit. I won’t digress or chase that anti-faith rabbit trail anymore. Contrary, to a self-driven and triumphalistic approach to life, the Bible, offers us to experience our lives, as they are, with God. This changes everything, most importantly us and our interactions with others.
And, the word from the prophet (c.f. 2 Chronicles 20: 15-17) was go out there, face that fear in the presence of the fear personified, in these three groups of people, that are after you and kick their #$@…NO…be still…be in your shear raw experience of life as it is—with me, God. So, is this a one off situation in the Bible? Is this just King J’s experience? Or, is this the status quo for the people of God—this being still before the shear reality of life as it is? Consider the following passages of Scripture:
How about Pharaoh and all of Egypt weighing down on the Israelites? Even more overwhelming than what King J faced? Here, God says to Moses, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (c.f. Exo. 14:14)
The Book of Psalms, which contains every emotional dilemma under the sun and specializes in people who are overwhelmed and bealaugred by life says, “Be still, and know that I am God…” (c.f. Psa. 46:10)
And, in the Gospel of John, Jesus to a group of dear friends, his disciples, whom he is getting ready to leave says, “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The word for remain, literally can mean stay. Here are a group of disciples getting ready to be diagnosed as those who have separation anxiety and instead of being told to manage the edgy symptoms of it, King Jesus says to J, his disciples, you and me—step into your fear with God or invite God to step into your fear.
Ours is only to be still. Some will call it lazy and irresponsible. Maybe, our inordinate emotions that drive so many of us come from our individualistic oriented lives (i.e. self-driven or fallout from The Fall in our lives). Maybe…just maybe…they prefer to be afraid and so obsessively rush to their own limited resources and connections and ideas, which turns them more toward themselves instead of, as King J did, toward God. Let us not be this people. Let us be God’s people—those who turn more fully toward God in this life no matter what we face. Contrary to being weakness, it’s humility and humility always gets God’s action in our lives.
Be still—right now—and watch—for God to come to life in your life…
Another prophet, Isaiah, once said, “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” Let us turn toward the God who saves us from the things that seem to be the end of us for The God we see in Jesus the Christ—meets us at the end of ourselves…and restores us to life…always.
Here are a couple of songs to help with the work God is getting ready to do in your life…today.
Reflect on this sung prayer, I Don’t Have The Power, by Jason Upton or Surrounded (Fight My Battles) by Kari Jobe