Do you believe?

Being Still

At times, the only way to make sense of the world is to stop and be still. It is, at those times, when I stop and am still that fear and grief flood my being.

I remember that which brings fear to me, and it consumes me. I grieve over my hurt and my pain and am angered that both have stolen precious time from me; time that I will never get back.

If I get up now and rush back into my world, as most do, fear and grief are all that I have. I realize that there are many who get up from being still too soon, and end up being consumed with fear and grief... forever, never recognizing them for what they truly are.

But, I sat a little longer this time and looked around me, for there was much to see. Soon, joy came creeping up out of the depths of my soul. I had not realize it had been missing. It was stuck deep within me... crammed there by the world in which I live. It needed a tug or two or ten, and up it came, pushed by the hope within me, and what do you know, that which I thought was joy, well, it was not.

This hope forced me to be still, and it was this stillness that allowed hope to reign, pulling real joy from my soul, and there is nothing like real joy. I realized that many are not as fortunate as me and never discover the secret of being still. They live busy lives full of their own joy and their own hope as they create their own little kingdoms, never realizing that what they are building is not a kingdom but a fence.

The world in which we live feeds our fear and grief by driving us to be busy, powerful, relevant... to be anything that keeps us away from being still, and, even now, if I am not careful, that is how I will live my life, busy and moving, consumed by fear and grief. There is no hiding from them. There is no escape. They are always lurking... waiting, especially for those who refuse to be still.

Fear and grief can make you believe that they are joy and hope. You can live a life thinking all along that you are experiencing joy and hope, and then something happens, something that turns your world upside down, exposing your joy and hope for what they really are, fear and grief. And, you realize your soul has been stolen by them. They have forced you to be something you never intended to be.

This is how we live today in this world we call home. If we would just stop and be still we would begin to understand, but our lives are busy. We have to get in our run, have lunch with our friends and work on our yard for these things bring us joy, or do they? We have to have control and do things our way, and we do it all for what? The joy and hope that we think we want and need.

We end up lost in our own way, and slowly, we start to forget to think of others. We fall in love with ourselves, and we forget how much better it is to love and serve another. We so desire to be right and to be told that we are right that we forget the wonderful feeling of telling another how great they are. We have become addicted to ourselves and apathetic to every other thing outside of who we are. We are the very thing we did not want to be, and if we were stop for a time, we would get a taste of real joy, but most of us keep on moving.

When most of us do stop, it is usually just for a moment because that is all the time we have. We have important things to do in our busy lives, and besides, we don't like the way we feel in this moment so we get up and move on. We don't like who we are, but we don't understand this so we seek more of ourselves, never realizing that what we are seeking is the very thing we don't like. It is a vicious circle with only one true exit - being still.

"Be still and know that I am God!"