11/01/2022
Yesterday I took a personal day. Hallelujah. After preaching three times on Sunday, giving two presentations, and participating in a long but extremely encouraging meeting, I was spent. For those who are outside the scope of our E91 family, we’re in the midst of launching a two-year generosity initiative called LIFT 2.0 to pay off the remainder of our debt, plant daughter church #75, partner with some additional mission endeavors, and address some sorely needed facility projects.
We all have seasons of extreme busyness. I think of farmers who face the rigorous pace of the harvest season, or teachers who buckle down through semesters of squirming children and never-ending paper grading.
If you’ve been tracking with me through the years of my blog, you will notice the recurring theme of healthy rhythms and soul care. Song writers create lyrics from the soul and so do preachers. What emerges in words and phrases are the echoes of rumblings from within.
Eighteenth-century Christian poet, William Cowper, once wrote:
A life all turbulence and noise may seem
To him that leads it wise and to be praised;
But wisdom is a pearl with most success
Sought in still waters (The Task, Book 3)
I find still waters to be a perfect metaphor for the longing of the soul. This is the spiritual center of our private world, which, if clouded with chaos, will spew forth a cacophony of disorder and dissonance. Many of us find our souls in the raging battle of noise, clatter, and clutter.
But if the spiritual center of our private world is saturated with stillness, what emanates is a tranquility that permeates the disarray around us.
For years I looked at spiritual disciplines as obligatory duties to somehow refine my weak character. I saw them more as painful punishments or odious medicines. Now, however, I see these practices as a gentle breeze guiding me over still waters. I breathe in God’s grace and breathe out His praise.
Gordon MacDonald wrote years ago:
“Down through the centuries the Christian mystics were the ones who took spiritual disciplines most seriously…. They believed that there had to be regular experiences of withdrawal from routines and relationships to seek God [over still waters]. They were quick to tell us that church services and religious celebrations were far from adequate. A man or woman had to develop a chapel, still waters, in the private world. There was no alternative” (Ordering Your Private World, 121).
But here’s the kicker: We don’t escape to still waters to avoid the storms of life. We practice a rhythm of stillness in order to embrace the storms of life with souls centered on the One who says to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” (Mark 4:39).
I encourage you this week to find a healthy rhythm of stepping into still waters to calm your soul, so that Jesus will guide you through the storms that may be looming on the horizon.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heaven-laden,
and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
