“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
Be still…. What a concept and what a difficult thing to do in this noisy technological world. Have you ever looked at David Johnson’s photography or the work of some of our other photographers? What strikes me is not only the beauty of our local flora and fauna that he captures, but the serenity, the quiet reverence of so many of his photos.
I don’t know about the other photographers, but I do know that DJ is often up very late at night to capture the northern lights in all their beauty, or is up mighty early in the morning to catch the wakening stirring of morning in our corner of the world. (This activity is hard for me to get my head around since my idea of morning is getting up at the crack of noon…)
As I look at his photos, I realize that in order for him to get those pictures of fox, or beaver, or moose or eagle that he must spend time….being still… waiting… being patient. And his silence and patience is rewarded by sights that most of us never see in the wild.
Be still….
It is the same in our spiritual lives. Sometimes we get so busy doing…or proclaiming…or telling God all of the things that we want for our world, for our families, for people in our lives that we forget to listen. We miss some of the most important things that we need to hear and feel. Our heads are so full of things we need to do, places we need to go, people we need to see, time we need to not be wasting that we can’t even sit quietly without doing something (knitting, writing, reading, scrap booking, doing e-mail or face book). We just can’t seem to “be.”
And we miss so much… the mystery of the Creator in the rhythm of our breathing, the music of your beating heart, the relaxing of muscles that we pay no attention to unless they are working or hurting. We miss sounds: the whistle of the wind in the trees, the night sounds of cooling branches, ice forming on the lake, the gentle purring of a cat, snowflakes falling on the windows.
Be still….
For in that time of silence, that time of quiet awareness apart from the ordinary, we are gently nudged by the One to look within ourselves and see all that we were created to be…and know God.
Be still.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Pastor EvaLyn Carlson, serving as interim minister of Zoar Lutheran Church in Tofte.
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