Engaging the Stillness

When I begin a yoga class, I typically do a brief Bible study. I had been thinking about Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God,” for the past week. I like to call Psalm 46:10 a back pocket Bible verse. The verse joins John 3:16, Genesis 1:1, Romans 3:23, John 14:6, etc. in the back pocket. The back pocket is accessible at all times, and whenever you’re having a bad day or struggling through something in particular, That Guy or That Girl pulls out a back pocket verse. E.g. You say, “I don’t feel worthy of God’s love, I keep messing up.” That Guy says, “ALL fall short of the glory of God.” Ok, so there is definitely theological truth there, I’m not arguing that. I’m just making a comment on how we throw around verses as quick panaceas or remedies, without really exploring what it means to “fall short of the glory of God.” 

Today, I remove Psalm 46:10 from my own back pocket in order to delve into the verse and attempt to understand what it really means to be still before the Lord. I started by looking up “still” in the dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary defines still:

A. adj. 

1. Motionless; not moving from one place, stationary; also, remaining in the same position or attitude, quiescent.

b. Abstaining from action. Const. of (in OE., genitive). Phrase, to hold oneself still.

Pretty clear cut, right? God wants us to chill out. We live these incredibly crazy lives with hectic schedules and sometimes we need a time-out. We usually regulate Sundays for chilling out. Keep the Sabbath holy (another back pocket verse, by the way). 

But when I looked at the Hebrew lexicon, the word translated as still is raphah, which means “to slacken (in many applications, literal or figurative) — abate, cease, consume, draw (toward evening), fail, (be) faint, be (wax) feeble, forsake, idle, leave, let alone (go, down), (be) slack, stay, be still, be slothful, (be) weak(-en).” 

To abate, to cease, forsake. God is asking us to give up, not just sit down. Give up our agendas, our deadlines, our schedules, our plans in order to know God. Know, or yada in Hebrew, is not a casual knowing. It’s a deep knowing, a searching, a concerning, a distinguishing. It takes all of our attention and all of our energy.

Interestingly, even when I am “holding myself still,” my mind can go 1 million miles a minute. I don’t think that counts for being still. What I think God is calling us to here is a stillness of the heart. The verse says BE STILL. To be is a verb. It’s an action. This isn’t a stillness of passivity or apathy that He wants from us, it’s an active stillness.

We are to ENGAGE in the STILLNESS. 

We are to center our hearts on Him, so that we may know Him. I think that yoga is the perfect activity for being still. Sounds like an oxymoron, but when you understand what it is that God wants when He’s asking us to be still, it makes perfect sense. Yoga is the linking of body and breath. When I am in a flow that my body is comfortable with, it’s almost like a movement meditation. Running  is another great example of this phenomenon. You can be running, 1 mile or 10 miles, and you can be completely unaware of your legs or of your surroundings because the motion is so familiar. Running, like yoga practice, is a great time to BE STILL. You’re completely engaged physically, but mentally you can detach from the action and focus on God. Thus you are engaging the stillness in your heart, rather than in your physical being. I like to think of stillness as a posture of the heart. Just like you move from a downward facing dog into a forward fold, you have to most into stillness. 

I encourage you to take some time today to engage that stillness. Find a quiet place, or even choose a favorite activity such as running or walking, and begin to reflect and consider who God is and how you see Him working in your life! Be still and know Him.