A steadfast STILLNESS….

Psalm 37: 7 ~ Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil device!

The typhoon was massive. It slammed into the eastern coast of China, the eye-wall brushing past the small village and the underground church where we were bound.

Our plane was grounded, so we decided to go over land. We arrive 24 hours late, discovering to our amazement that members of the small church had waited for us, singing songs through the night. The original congregation of 40 had grown to over 600.

On the way out of the service, as all gathered their homemade wooden folding chairs, an elderly woman in an impeccably clean blue flowered blouse took me by the hand. She pressed it to her heart and through the translator said, “You don’t have to leave. Why don’t you just stay with us?”

Though most of her teeth were gone, her smile was radiant. She placed her gnarled hand on my head, and we laughed together at my baldness. When we approached the van and it became clear that I was not free to stay and enjoy her hospitality, a calm settled over her that is impossible to describe. As she became still, her smile transformed. The deep wrinkles still formed the pattern of her smile, but her eyes, no less bright, looked away. I became aware that this was the moment I had come to China to experience. “This is the face of lament,” a voice inside my heart spoke.

I have had the privilege to know perhaps a dozen believers who have suffered for their faith. They have come from all walks of life, rich and poor and from every corner of the world. Yet they all had this in common, that same quality – a steadfast stillness.

Grief resolved through lament settles deep in our souls. There, like the ballast in a ship, it keeps us upright in the midst of life’s typhoons. It is an accomplishment earned through simple acceptance of the Word that speaks “Be still” (Mark 4: 39)

The storms, the brokenness, the pain, the confusion, the disappointment that comes when someone drops into your life for a little while and is then suddenly swept away, all can be transformed, transfigured, clamed into a peace and a stillness that is “righting” and steadying and steadfast.

-Suffering can have a calming effect on our souls-

Daily devotional from “Our Journey”