still

This morning, one of the blog posts on my (in)courage email challenged the readers to write for five uninterrupted minutes on a writing prompt. The prompt was the word still. Here is my five minutes on still. 

When I think about the word still, I think about not moving. I think of the verse in Psalms that says, "Be still and know that I am God." One year at BCM, a fellow student spoke about that verse. I distinctly remember him saying that the words for "Be still" meant "SHUT UP!" in Hebrew.

Wow. "Shut up and know that I am God" just has a bit of a stronger tone to it, don't you think? I really struggle with this. I love words. I love to talk. I love to read. And I love to write. Hence, for me to "Shut up and know that I am God" takes a lot out of me. It takes a bit of humbling. I always want to be doing something. If I am reading, writing, cleaning the house, lesson planning, whatever, I want to have some background music on. In our American culture, I think we are afraid of silence. I find it hard to just sit and be still before the Lord. To shut up and just know that He is God. But that is what He wants. And that is where He can really speak--when everything else that could distract me is turned off and it is just me and Him.