Stillness

 

Still waters don’t have ripples. So, what place does a discussion about ‘stillness’ have here on a blog about the “ripple effect” of the short life of an infant boy?

When I think of true stillness, I think of the days I have spent fishing with my family and friends on the lakes and backwater of Ontario. One has not truly experienced “stillness” until one has sat in a boat in the middle of a lake with absolutely no breeze, no traffic, no noise. The place is so quiet that you can hear the air whistle through the feathers on the wings of a bird in flight overhead. You can hear the blood pulsing through your head. You can hear a conversation between folks in the boat across the lake, more than a mile away. That sort of calm and quiet allows a person to reflect on things that normally pass by without notice when things get busy or when we are otherwise distracted. The sunshine seems brighter, smells are enhanced and life just seems… better.

Sadly, our society seems to have become “addicted” to the distractions. How many of us would prefer to have an electronic device in hand in order to check breaking news or social media rather than sit still and watch a sunset for 30 minutes? When was the last time you drove to work with the car radio off, just to enjoy some quiet thoughts? When we see parents at a park, are they enjoying their children play or are they on their phones? How do we explain the fact that we actually have to have a law forbidding people from texting while driving an automobile?

Throughout scripture, God calls to us to come closer to Him in a variety of ways. Sometimes, He asks us to drop what we’re doing because it gets in the way. Other times He asks us to pick up and go. But one of my favorites (and humbly, something I’m very bad at) is when he simply asks us to be still. Calm. Quiet. Listen. Do nothing. (Ps 46:10)

This makes sense in today’s world of distractions though. Think of the story of Elijah on the mountain (1 Kings 19:11-13). The broader story is a great one that is often overlooked (at least by me). Elijah, one of the heroes of the Bible, is spent. He’s feeling defeated and upset that no one is listening to and worshiping God as they ought to. So, God invites Elijah to speak with Him on a mountain. There, Elijah is met with a great and strong wind that “tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks”, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then he’s greeted with an earthquake. Then a fire. Still, no God. The Almighty Lord did not make His presence known in all of these great and powerful acts. It was in the “sound of a whisper” that Elijah heard it: God’s presence – His voice beckoning Elijah to lay his concerns upon God.

Deb and I spent time recently, unplugged from the scheduled events and found it to be the most therapeutic moment. Times such as this, I am convinced, are what God calls us to enjoy as often as possible. Stillness allows us to use our senses to absorb everything around us. Sun-rises and -sets are more colorful; flowers are more fragrant; and so on. For us, we were able to re-engage in conversation without interruption and for a brief time forget about the worries of the day. God knows life is stressful. He also knows that those stresses will distract us from a solid relationship with Him and with each other. Quiet moments open up a line of communication that was once muffled with static and noise that drown out the message of the one communicating and impair the ability of the audience to hear and understand. Once we rid ourselves of the distractions, His work can really begin in us.

As for me, extended quietness is difficult to get used to simply because I don’t experience it often. I imagine I am not alone in my desire for just 20 minutes of peace from a hectic day. But how many of us would get fidgety at an actual 20 minutes of quiet with nothing to do but think and ponder and listen (that is, if we didn’t nod off for a nap). Give some serious thought for a moment what you might do or think if you took a seat in a space without phones, gadgets, TV, or other people around for even five minutes. How many of us would act as though we were an addict going through withdrawals rather than focus on the stillness and truly begin to relish the opportunity to spend some time connecting with God Himself?

Our lives have become so complicated with so many artificial distractions that when a true and significant life event takes place, we are ill-equipped to slow down and focus on it. We tend to plod through, absorbed in the continued distractions and fail (in my case, perhaps refuse) to prioritize those moments when we can listen for the whisper of God. I dare to say that sometimes I would prefer the distractions in order to avoid a tough and candid discussion with God.

One last thought on stillness. As you may have noticed in some of my latest posts, much of what I have written lately is inspired by the musings of C.S.Lewis in “A Grief Observed.” Among his points on asking, knocking and not receiving, as well as that part of grief in which one feels isolated, he brought up something profound.

“The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can’t give it: you are like the drowning man who can’t be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.”

Calm and peaceful, patiently waiting is often the position God wants us to take. Despite the many distractions around us, I suppose we can be our own worst distraction.