Here or there does not matter.
We must be still and still moving.
T.S. Eliot
There are times when your thoughts and emotions can possess you, and you do need to respond. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” When anxiety takes over, or when any thoughts or emotions dominate, telling them to “Be still,” is a helpful practice. This isn’t an act of emotional condemnation telling them, “You’re a bad emotion,” or telling yourself, “You shouldn’t feel that way,” but just instructing the turbulence in your mind to, “Be still.” It is recognizing that your peace must begin within as Robert Allen described,
We can only help make our lives and our world more peaceful, when we ourselves feel peace. Peace already exists within each of us, if we only allow ourselves to feel its comfort. Peace of mind begins when we stop thinking about how far we have to go, or how hard the road has been, and just let ourselves feel peace. Peace of mind gives us the strength to keep trying and keep walking along the path that we know is right for our lives.
A great example of “Be still” in practice is Jesus with the disciples in a storm. The story is found in Matthew 8, Mark 4, and Luke 8. This is Mark’s version,
35 On that day, when evening had come, (Jesus) said to (the disciples), “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took (Jesus) with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.
37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But (Jesus) was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
As a young boy on a boat, trying frantically to get back to shore before a storm surrounded my friends and me, I stood up, held my hands apart, and commanded, “Be still!” Nothing happened. I haven’t tried it again. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that I often have the same lack of success calming the storms of my mind as I do the storms outside. As I read this passage, I can see the disciples had the same problem. The storm was around them. The disciples were terrified. In their day, they had known many who had gone out in raggedy wooden boats, met a storm, and never returned. Their minds were full of so many intense thoughts and emotions that they were tossed by the waves in their mind.
They woke Jesus who said to the storm, “Be still.” Immediately, the storm calmed. Then he asked, “Why are you so afraid, do you still not have any faith?” The word ‘still’ points to where they have been before the boat ride, what they had done together, what they had seen Jesus do, all that they had experienced. Jesus’ question didn’t deny the threat of the storm but asked how they could be so unaware that he was present with them. They were not alone.
The story of Jesus’ life is framed at the beginning and end by angel bookends. At the beginning, an angel says to a group of shepherds, “Fear not,” and at the empty tomb, an angel tells the women, “Don’t be afraid.” Unless our minds are open, we’ll never hear the good news that we don’t have to live in fear no matter what the situation. We are not alone.
Say to your stormy thoughts, “Be still,” then open your heart to God’s messengers, encouraging you, “Do not fear. You are not alone.”
