I think I should ‘Be still and KNOW that YOU are GOD’

   Ever notice the up and down moods of the Psalms. I feel these past few weeks like I’m on a roller coaster. I never liked those rides; too wild for me. But life is not calm and plain, it ebbs and flows; like our airplane rides, a rush and ear popping to start, an exhilarating climb up and then the beautiful calm above the clouds and earth below. Then things can get bumpy, even frightening, noisy, and restless. The calm comes again, the atmosphere clears and wow! Am I really up here with you God?

   Then the decent down, where all is crazy again in a mad dash to the next gate. Some get rude, some panic and cry when they miss a flight. Insensitive folk push through the jostle of the security gates, Weariness can numb a heart, all lost in their own plans and problems. Few see the other folk around them.

   Five times, we were up and down on the planes going to Uganda. How much I ‘m reminded of the ups and downs in our experience with God. Reading the Psalms this month, I see how they express what I have been feeling. I’m praising God for his awesome works in my life, then the next day, or moment, I feel I am rushing down into the hustle and bustle of the dash, running again to catch a flight, needing God to deliver me and help from the onslaught of petty attacks.        

   Oh Lord, you know me. I am a very simple person. Life can be so complicated. Lord, I hear the words of Ps. 131 and I cry “Lord my heart tries not to be haughty, nor my eyes be lofty. I do not concern myself with great matters, nor things too profound for me. Lord, how I have prayed for the calm and quiet soul so I’d be like the weaned child with his mother; so I’d have my soul like that weaned child. LORD my hope is in YOU.” 

   Ever have the details, not the great matters, disturb your peace?  I’ve felt like the psalmist who said “My spirit was overwhelmed within me. …Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise your Name.” Ps.142

   My stomach hasn’t been happy since I got home. (Reflux can make my chest hurt.) I get asthma from the cold air. Then there are all the details of a busy life here with 6 children.

1.      We’ve talked to Katie a lot lately as we hope she and her family can come visit soon to help us before we sell the house.

2.      Gabriel and I plan to go quickly to Tennessee soon for Matt and Erin’s baby’s entry in the world. They have all been sick there again.

3.      Reena and Annie are in the thick of home schooling and need my help.

4.      Gabriel and James need guidance to prepare to move on to the next leg of their journey on their own.

   Big jobs; no different than most people. Maybe I’m a bit stretched and tired!

   I did just recover from an illness that left me unable to attend to much of anything but the basics for the past 2 years. Now I am looking at selling most everything we own and preparing to go to live overseas.   I am trying to go at all slowly, but life just rolls on.

   Details, like a lost receipt pop up. We need that receipt of 3 years ago to have a problem worth hundreds of dollars fixed. The hunt is time consuming right before bed and my mind then just won’t shut down. 

   Have you ever had days and nights like that? The details, boring and no fun, yet regular life, continue. Help me Lord be faithful in them too.  

   “LORD, still and quiet my soul today.  I want to write of the great things we saw You do in Uganda and what dreams we have to move forward. But today… Lord, I think I should ‘Be still and KNOW that YOU are GOD’, Ruler of the Universe and all the Hosts of Heaven.   Please protect me from the attack of the enemy who wants to steal my joy and energy.”

   I remember the attack on me days before I left for Uganda. Satan continually whispered that I would die there.  It was intense and it went on for days.  Quietly one day as the attack came again, and as I prayed again for deliverance, Christ spoke to my heart. “I have come that ‘You’ might have life and that ‘You’ may have it more abundantly.”  I realized it was in the context of “the thief came to steal, kill, and destroy.”  John 10:10 Yes, that was it exactly. I cried out Jesus’ words to me… And peace came. No more attacks (of that nature) anymore. But our enemy won’t let up…Yet now today remember what God has done in the past!…..

   Praise be to God, the Victory was won at the Cross!

   Today I am going to stand on that TRUTH. God will heal my gut or help me through it. The winter cold will pass and my asthma with it. One moment at a time, God will see me through the details of life. And with David I can say, “My hope IS in the LORD.”