The Forgotten Act of Being Still

Hey World,

So I got to thinking (rare), and I think I'm going to start a little mini (redundant) series called
"The Forgotten Acts." It's kinda catchy and maybe it will keep me more faithful to posting.
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Well today's forgotten act is the act of "being still." No I'm not talking about sitting somewhere
quietly while not doing anything. Then again. Maybe I am.
"But how can you be serious James! Nobody just sits around under a tree quietly anymore!"
No. No they do not.

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I got a question for you. How many of you have those days where you are just like....
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
You know what I'm talking about. Those days when school is just too much, or the bills are
being to stack up, or your boyfriend dumps you, or you don't have any friends, or the
Vikings lost, or you feel lonely, or your marriage is going rough, or your kids are unbearable,
or your parents are unbearable, and God just doesn't seem to hear you? He doesn't seem to care.
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Yeah. I have some of those. Not the one with the kids. But I mean, after all, none of us have seen
God. We haven't talked to Him face to face. It's easy to fell like He's not there. It's easy to lay
in bed praying, and feel like your just talking to the ceiling. A ceiling that doesn't talk back.
I don't know about you, but those are the days when I tend to cry,
"LET ME SEE YOU!!! Please...just let me see You once, so I'll never doubt again."
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Well, believe it or not, you and I aren't the only ones in the history of the world that have felt this
way. Nope. We are in good company. Let's go back for a second. Time travel back to a couple
thousand years ago. A little place called Egypt. A little people group called the Israelites. Man,
if you think you have problems...THESE people had problems. They were in bondage for hundreds
of years. Let me say that again. HUNDREDS of YEARS!!! Well along comes Moses, God's chosen
hero for the Israelites. By God's grace Moses delivers the people from the evil ruler of Egypt, and the people walk away...free. But then something happens. The people wind up in front of a great river. And just there luck, the evil ruler decides he made a mistake and chases them down. The people have waited hundreds of years for this moments, and just when God seemed to show up, they are trapped. Hundreds of years of waiting, just to be let down. Now, I've only been alive 20 years.
That alone makes me feel like I have nothing to complain about...for about five seconds until
I go back to my selfish old self. And like me, you probably want a solution to your problems...
not just to think about people that had it worse thousands of years ago.
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But before we get to that solution, let's travel to another time in history, not too much later.
A man called Elijah. If you aren't familiar with this man, he was an Old Testament prophet
who dedicated his life to telling the people of Israel messages that God had given to him. But
sadly, the people rarely listened. You see, the people had stopped worshipping God, and begun
worshipping false gods. Well, in chapter 18 of 1 Kings, Elijah finally has a victory. He defeats
the prophets of Baal (their false God), and the True God triumphs. The people of Israel turn back
to God and everything is well and good. But when the Queen finds out. She swears to kill
Elijah. Now Elijah has lived his whole life on the run, a death warrant on his head. Talk about
a short lived victory. So Elijah finally runs to a mountain, falls to his knees and cries out to God
saying (paraphrase)
"Just kill me! I'm done. I lived my life for you. Today we won. Just let me go home, please!"
Sound familiar? You ever gotten to the point where you were just ready to "go home?"
I have, and my life isn't even close to a thousandth as bad as Elijah's.
But what happens to Elijah? Well, he goes to the top of a mountain, waiting to hear from God.
First, there is a great wind, breaking the very rocks of the mountain. But God is not in the wind.
And then there was an earthquake. But God was not in the earthquake either. And finally, there
was fire. What does that mean? Fire from the sky? Who knows. But there was fire, and again God
was not in the fire.
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So where is He? Where is God when Elijah needs help. Where is God when the Israelites are trapped?
Where is God when you and I just can't take the card we've been dealt anymore? Well believe it
or not, the answer is in your Bible in three particular passages.
1. Exodus 14:14
2. 1 Kings 19:12, and
3. Psalm 37:7
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First, turn to Exodus 14:14. When the Israelites were trapped and all hope seemed lost,
God spoke through the deliverer Moses. He did not give instructions how to defeat the
Egyptians. He didn't tell them them not to be afraid. He didn't even tell them to pray. Moses
just said this: "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." Imagine the scene.
In fact, put yourself in it. You have been a slave your entire life. A man comes promising
that God is going to free you. At first you don't believe him, but then, against all odds, you
find yourself walking away from the great country where you were a slave. Walking to
freedom. And just when you convince yourself it's not a dream. An army of highly trained
soldiers are racing toward you, and there's nowhere for you to run. And the man who brought
you here has the audacity to say, "Be still." But what can you do? Fight? Yeah right. Maybe
you could throw a rock at someone. Try to swim across? Now a chance. You'll drown.
Maybe being still is the best option. Close your eyes. Imagine the rest that comes with death.
And then something happens, in your stillness. The water begins to...no...it couldn't be.
The water is parting! Right down the middle! It can't be. You can even see the ground all
the way across! People begin to run into it, sprinting for the other side. Maybe God IS
doing something, though, the Egyptians will probably still catch you. After a while you get to
the other side, and something strange happens. The waters cave back in. The soldiers die.
You are...free.
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Turn to 1 Kings 19:12. Elijah is at the end of his rope. All he wants is some hope from
God. And it seems like he's going to get some. But even when the supernatural events start
happening, God is not there. But read verse 12. After all the crazy events, Elijah hears
"a still, small voice." God wasn't shouting from Heaven. He was whispering. Whispering words
that would change Elijah's life forever (read the rest of 1 Kings to find out how).
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The last verse is Psalm 37:7 (my favorite chapter in the Bible by the way). In the
NIV (forgive me Dad) it says,
"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men
succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes."
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Now, maybe there are no "evil schemers" chasing you down, but I'm pretty sure we
can all relate this to our present day lives in the situations I mentioned at the beginning.
You see, I kind of have a system of what I do when life just stinks.
1. Complain to people.
2. Complain to God.
3. Tell God I'm sorry for complaining.
4. Try to come to a place with God where I can "hear" him.
Now I attempt number 4 in several ways. Praying really hard. Reading my Bible.
My favorite is probably going to singsporation here on campus. Trying to "hear"
God through songs. Try to get enough of a "spiritual high" to get a "word from the LORD."
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Now is there anything wrong with praying? No. Reading the Bible? No.
Singing? No. But maybe there is something better. An act which has been forgotten
(I can't speak for you, but at least forgotten for me). The act of being still. The act
of getting away from EVERYTHING. Going to a quiet spot. And I meant quiet as
in you can't hear ANYTHING. And not praying. Not reading. Not singing. Just
listening. Maybe you'll hear God, maybe you won't. But God said to do it, so you can
bet your bottom dollar that you'll be blessed. Take the time to just soak in how GREAT
your God is, and how small your problems are in comparison. Just try it.
Just be still.