Be Still, Be Still

"Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those whose who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar with wings like eagles; they will walk and not be faint."

Well, lookie there!  Would you look at that?  Just look at it!  Isaiah 40:28-31 is putting the last month in a nutshell!

I was given homework at the Benjamin Meeting three or four weeks ago that I completely failed to even start.  Tonight as I look back and assess the month, week and day I can't help but be drawn back to the assignment...

"Collene, BE STILL", he told me...

Sure, I'll do that... right after I cram three weeks of company, bronchitis, a new baby niece, a 6,000 mile trip with three kids, a family wedding, a few friendship mending conversations, a relationship-altering (ending?) conversation, a concussion-causing health concern, a hit-and-run involving one of my children, a cat surgery- technically two, but I don't have a punch-card so who's counting, a teenager's first crush, first girlfriend, first break-up, first school dance, a close friend's emergency situation, a cancer-marker-increase-scare, a trip back to "Egypt" in my head-n-heart...  all the while working 13 of the last 15 days- on my feet, in deep conversations with amazing people I deeply care about and as well as some I barely know, hour after hour...  You get it:  life is happening.  How does one simply "be still".

December's bustle built into January's cry for help and has already crescendoed  into February's earth-shattering scream for relief:

"BE STILL and KNOW that I am GOD."

In fact, if you're like my sweet friend, who's going through her own tailor-made desert wandering, you'd hear it twice: "be still, be still..."  

You would cry aloud, like us- in the shower, or alone in your car, or from your sea of pillows at night, into the dark: "Jesus, show me mercy in this..."

The quiet voice that whispers "be still", washing your heart with the promise of peace, would pierce your darkness with "please, little girl, know that I am God.  I've got even this. My mercies are new EVERY morning... do you trust me?"

And then, tonight, you would understand: He has collected those tears and kept a record of each one in His ledger and they are not wasted, according to Psalm 56.

He has not missed a thing.  He has not even slept, according to Psalm 121.  Additionally, He quiets you with His love and rejoices over you with His singing according to Zephaniah 3:17.   Don't forget that He loves you perfectly, defined in 2 Corinthians 13, and because of that- His perfect love casts out all fear as found in 1 John 4...

Also, He who began a good work in us is FAITHFUL to complete it, according to Philippians 1. For tonight, that is enough.  Tomorrow, because of the mercies that are new every morning, I have been given a homework Mulligan.   I will be still, be still. I will begin to grasp that He really is the BIG God I crave.

Today, He met me with unfathomable proof that He sees, hears and feels me- and not only that, but has surrounded me with protection, support and love. Furthermore, He has used me- called me into the ring, actually.  The last three years of desert wandering have not been wasted.  All that He has taught me has not been in vain.  I was, finally, the comforter, the truth speaker, the promise bearer.  My experience was used as salve for the sweet, injured, discouraged soul on the other end of the phone.  The Truth that has taken root in me, has been a source of Life for a friend... in short- I see that there has been purpose in my suffering that reaches beyond myself (2 Corinthians 1:4).

Tonight I will rest...