andi oakes

I've been spending this morning resting, and I've needed it.  It's been a busy last few months with a lot of different things happening, and it's looking like a busy few months up ahead...so this morning, armed with a raging headache, I felt the need to take some time to rest – to be still. To find some space where my thoughts don't crowd in and where I can concentrate on just being me.

So as I've been sitting here concentrating on just BEING (which in itself is something of a juxtaposition), my mind began to hover around one little phrase found in Psalm 46 v 10:

Be still and know that I AM God...

So I began to wonder what “Be still” actually meant.  Out came the computer I was so desperate to avoid this morning and I began to search the web for the meaning of this phrase and what I found was so cool that I thought I would share it with you.

This little phrase “Be still” comes from the Hebrew word Rapha, which means to: Let go, to sink, to relax, to let drop, to be disheartened, to let alone, to be quiet, to relax...

If the Psalms had been written over here in Northern Ireland, then I think the author might well have put it like this: “Will you just wind your neck in and know that I AM God...”

As I allowed this little phrase to soak into me, I think I began to get a sense of what it meant to me.  Over the last while I have become more aware than ever of a natural flow and rhythm to life.  Life just keeps going no matter what.  Circumstances come and go but life continues unhindered by it all.  Our world has seen some deeply traumatic events in its history, but life still goes on.  The rhythm still beats and the flow still...well...flows.  

Lately I am beginning to feel like I am part of a narrative that is telling the story of my life, and it's amazing to me the more I think of it.  As I look back on what I have experienced so far and what I am experiencing even now, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that you just couldn't write this stuff if you tried.  

If God had sat me down at the beginning of my life and said “Ok son, now I want you to write out what is going to happen in your life.”, then I think I would have come up with something that would have been the equivalent of a first grade attempt to describe “Your favourite day out.”   Whereas my story so far has been one of intense moments of happiness and tears, joy and sadness, love and heartache, triumph and tragedy – it's just been full of life.  And I am more of the opinion now, that I am still only in the opening chapters.  The scene has barely been set and the key characters have only just been established.

So what of being “still” then?  I think what God is saying to us through this little phrase, is that the best thing we can do is literally just go with the flow – to learn to move our feet to the rhythm.  You see, I know people who spend so much energy trying to resist the flow of life because it goes against everything they believe about how it should work.  But how on earth can we know that?  As far as I know, this is my first go round – so how can I possibly know what way life is “supposed” to work?  I'm constantly being caught off guard by life and it's bizarre twists and turns.  I am stunned almost on a daily basis by what is actually inside of me, let alone what comes sauntering around the corner in the “real” world.

So many people are pushing and pressing, flailing and fighting, beating and bashing in order to make some headway in their lives, when all they are doing is probably exhausting themselves trying to get back upstream.  Isn't it funny how nostalgia changes our perception of days gone by?  I used to really hate SKA music when I was a teenager.  I was into the New Romantic stuff and detested groups like the Specials and Madness.  But now I'm older and I have drifted beyond those halcyon days, I find that my desire to recapture those years of yore actually makes me want to listen to that music.

How much effort therefore, are we using trying to recapture days that are gone?  How much energy are we wasting trying to swim back upstream because we're just simply afraid to see what's ahead of us.

Be still is what God says.  Let go. Relax. Chill and yes...be disheartened if need be.  Allow yourself to be disheartened in your own efforts to DO, and allow the flow of life to carry you – allow the rhythm of life to reach you feet.  Stop trying to dance like they did in the 60's, 70's and 80's and learn the steps of today...hear the rhythm of the NOW.

God is the flow of life.  God is the rhythm of life.  So sit back and...know Him.