The inspiration for my blog site's title as well as this first blog is "Being Still." Recently (actually a few months back) I was listening to one of the many podcasts entitled "Anything and Everything" by Alyssa and Jeff Bethke. During this one particular episode, Alyssa talks about certain words or phrases that she feels God lays on her heart throughout the week, words or thoughts she should meditate on, something she should work on. At first, I felt like that just wasn't the way God would try to connect with me. This past Saturday I'm pretty sure that changed. While catering a wedding reception for my dad, the wedding decorator's shirts said "Be Still" on the front. The rest of the verse from Psalm 46 was on the back. It reads:
"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10
At the moment I saw it, it didn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary, being from Mississippi we see verses and biblical allusions on t-shirts all the time. This was just an awesome verse that I had seen over and over, obviously never stopping to think about what it really means. That next morning I woke up and had had a dream. In this dream I got a tattoo, and you could have guessed it, the tattoo on my left wrist said "Be Still." Oh well that's cool, I thought. I have always wanted a tattoo. It wasn't until I was talking to Anthony, my boyfriend and best friend, at church that Sunday morning when I realized it popped up again. On my phone that same verse popped up as a notification on the front of my screen. That was three times in a matter of 24 hours this saying had been revealed to me. So there, in the middle of church, I had a revelation. The wheels started turning in this brain of mine. I thought about it over and over. Be Still, what could this mean? What is the connection to me? What is God trying to tell me?
I looked up the definition of "still." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it in a number of ways:
devoid of motion, calm, tranquil, uttering no sound
All of these I realized were quite different from the way I live. Everything with me is hustle and bustle--trying to get from one place to another in the quickest way. Then once I get there I try to move to the other place just as quick. There is always noise. There is always movement. Then I realized that in my relationship with God this is not the way it should be at all. I should not try to squeeze Him into a little part of my day. I mean, I do pray in the car and throughout the day but there had never been that stillness that was necessary in order to define my relationship with Him. Through all of the busyness in life, it is mandatory that I make time for Him. It is a priority that time is made in quietness with Him. No distractions, no noise, no movement, just myself and God. To me, this verse or phrase is also telling me to just sit back and let God be God. In the midst of life it is so easy to take everything into our own hands. We worry about money, about family members, and anything else we can think of. Here God is saying, "Kristen. Chill. You know I am God. Just let me do it. I've got this." He is THE Creator of Earth. He can handle anything and everything! It's not always up to me. God is God, and He's got this. I just have to let Him. Grow in faith. Grow in prayer. Meditate. And Be Still.
Kristen
Kristen
