Be still and know ...
Be still and know …
I was on the move again today, driving, as I often am, this time just the 46 miles home from visiting a good friend. In motion. Traveling. Thinking about time and space. Is it only because I was a homeschooling father that RT=D story problems are burned into my consciousness?! And is it only me that finds nearly endless fascination with the deep questions of existence—involving space and time—-embodied in that simple equation?
And along with the rambling thoughts, a strange wanderlust, a restless hunger to get somewhere to stop and rest, finding a place to BE. Many haunts sometimes serve the purpose: coffee shops (the upscale espresso kind, like Chaps, Rockwood, Rocket, Delicio, or Service Station), bars (the upscale microbrew kind, like Twigs, Twigs, or Twigs!), or parks (the upscale manicured kind, like Manito, Finch, Riverfront, or Corbin). But driven, I kept driving, passing them all by, headed HOME.
The spirit was talking. And the Spirit. Whispering the Word: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
Stabilitus. (Latin for stability.) That monastic vow that captures in concret practice this BEING STILL. Committing to A PLACE. A place to BE. To STAY where one is. To be in A PARTICULAR space for all of one’s earthly life.
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you (Psalm 116:7). Here the Hebrew has in view a resting place, the home of a person or the lair of an animal, with the focus that this is a place of rest, satisfaction, and contentment (Kohlenberger).
Is it possible that one must cease traveling in order to know God? That in motion, on the move, we cannot fully know God? The One who transcends time and space absolutely requires of us finite creations in his image that we STOP and BE; that we occupy a time, the time, a place, the space, to be with, to learn from, to know him?
Now of course he travels with us. But for us to fully know him we may need to adopt his speed: Stopped, resting, still, quiet: all the things our hurried, harried, snowbirding existences find so foreign.
I went home. I am here, now. In my place, in my space. Settled. And thrilled BEING in his presence.
Join us?
I was on the move again today, driving, as I often am, this time just the 46 miles home from visiting a good friend. In motion. Traveling. Thinking about time and space. Is it only because I was a homeschooling father that RT=D story problems are burned into my consciousness?! And is it only me that finds nearly endless fascination with the deep questions of existence—involving space and time—-embodied in that simple equation?
And along with the rambling thoughts, a strange wanderlust, a restless hunger to get somewhere to stop and rest, finding a place to BE. Many haunts sometimes serve the purpose: coffee shops (the upscale espresso kind, like Chaps, Rockwood, Rocket, Delicio, or Service Station), bars (the upscale microbrew kind, like Twigs, Twigs, or Twigs!), or parks (the upscale manicured kind, like Manito, Finch, Riverfront, or Corbin). But driven, I kept driving, passing them all by, headed HOME.
The spirit was talking. And the Spirit. Whispering the Word: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
Stabilitus. (Latin for stability.) That monastic vow that captures in concret practice this BEING STILL. Committing to A PLACE. A place to BE. To STAY where one is. To be in A PARTICULAR space for all of one’s earthly life.
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you (Psalm 116:7). Here the Hebrew has in view a resting place, the home of a person or the lair of an animal, with the focus that this is a place of rest, satisfaction, and contentment (Kohlenberger).
Is it possible that one must cease traveling in order to know God? That in motion, on the move, we cannot fully know God? The One who transcends time and space absolutely requires of us finite creations in his image that we STOP and BE; that we occupy a time, the time, a place, the space, to be with, to learn from, to know him?
Now of course he travels with us. But for us to fully know him we may need to adopt his speed: Stopped, resting, still, quiet: all the things our hurried, harried, snowbirding existences find so foreign.
I went home. I am here, now. In my place, in my space. Settled. And thrilled BEING in his presence.
Join us?
posted by Daniel Leslie Peterson | 7:41 PM
2 Comments:
The part that got me the most is the idea of staying in one physical place as part of the charge to "be still and know that I am God." I normally associate that with stilling the heart (emotional-spiritual), not necessarily stilling the feet (physical-spatial). But what you say is a challenge to me; especially if the monastic tradition has understood this passage as staying put physically. As an academic, I think it is the rarer case that people like us stay put. But staying put might be part of the challenge I am facing right now. Of course, where we live, that's not exactly a prison sentence... You're a good man Dan -- I was taken by your three words today for me (cynical, smart-aleck, and what's that other one ... oh yes CLEVER). I've got stuff to work on.
We enjoy your thoughts, Dan. Being still is in such contrast to human life, where we always want to be somewhere else, doing something else... But what a lesson to learn, to be still with God.
I do take refuge in my thought that we can be mentally still anywhere, we don't necessarily have to be physically still (although that helps). Sometimes if I'm on the bus for work or whatever, just closing my eyes and being still with God for a few moments helps settle me amidst the busy day.
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