“BE STILL and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10
originally posted Oct 1, 2015 at The Farmersplace.com
Stillness is hard, especially when you are hurting or scared or worried. Whenever I hear this Bible verse I am reminded of working in the strawberry fields.
When I was in college, I worked at a strawberry patch every summer. Now, this was not just a little patch of strawberries in our backyard. This was acres of strawberries. I worked through the season. So I was cleaning fields to keep out weeds and ready them for the public to come and pick strawberries. Now when strawberries are blooming, guess what else might be around. You guessed it, bees.
One day, I was working the fields when suddenly I found myself working in the same place as the bees. And I was surrounded. Why couldn’t this be one of those times when you find yourself frozen and cannot move?
No … My mind was saying “BE STILL… BE STILL and they won’t bother you. Just go about your own business. Keep pulling weeds.”
But my body was flailing, my feet were doing some kind of new dance. My arms and hands were waving and swatting the air. And no matter how much I tried to stop, I could not convince my body that I needed to just stop and quit moving. (My brothers had a good laugh imagining this when I relayed the story to them.)
Somehow, I finally did find a way to still myself without getting stung.
Here’s the point.
The bees need to be there to pollinate those strawberries. We wouldn’t get those sweet, delicious strawberries without the bees.
It’s that way in life.
Those trials are there to help us grow. You’ve heard it before … “ the testing of your faith produces endurance, etc., etc” But, we don’t like it one little bit. We want the trial to go away, but God needs us to STOP AND LISTEN. He is CALLING to us, but too often, we don’t hear him because we are too busy doing good things and then too busy swatting at the problems.
But He is quietly saying “BE STILL. BE STILL.”
Some of us never learn to BE STILL until God forces us to BE STILL.
Coming up next, I’ll share how God made me STILL.
Meanwhile, share in the comments, “What does it take for you to BE STILL?”
-Mandy
Want to know about my journey with pain? Check back HERE for new posts on my story.
Pastor’s Wife (retired) & Chronic Pain Warrior blogs about how to make it through anything by relating her own life experiences to her writing. She is passionate about her love for the Lord and desires to spread that passion to others. She has a great desire to encourage women who are following behind her.
Oh, Mandy, I can so relate to your sharing. I hear God speaking to me so often, “Be still,” and I answer, “Yes, Lord.” But He has to keep saying it, because as soon as I answer yes, I am so prone to immediately start worrying or trying to figure things out. HE wants to be our steady point. Thank you for sharing your story, and this sweet reminder today.
Oh, my! I can’t imagine being surrounded by bees like that. Not sure I could have kept still either. 😉 Love your analogy.
Thanks Bettie! Be still has probably got to be the biggest challenge I face. But so glad that I am now able to be still before the Lord every day for more than a token 5 minutes.
I avoided bees that day, but I have too many bee sting stories to tell. Probably why I was so freaked by them! Ha
Thanks for dropping by!
Loved the analogy! Yes, being still and letting grace and gratitude take over are the only ways I know that one can work through pain and suffering.
God wants so much for us to be still before Him so that He can talk with us as friends. Thanks for coming by for a visit.