Need A Vacation?

One of my favourite Bible verses is Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God”.  One of my favourite authors is Philip Yancey. This week these two faves came together in a book Yancey wrote, entitled Prayer:  Does it Make Any Difference?  In it he talks about the fact that this little verse contains two powerful, life-giving commands.  The first is “Be still...”  He explains that the Latin imperative for “be still” is vacate.   As Simon Tugwell explains, “God invites us to take a holiday [vacation], to stop being God for a while, and let him be God”. Sounds inviting doesn’t it?  In North America we live in a time of affluence and ease and yet stillness and personal peace have maybe never been more absent. Our frenzied pace often means that even vacation time isn’t really marked by inner calm and refreshment.  My husband and I struggle with holiday time not being just a different to-do list.  I find this command to be still very inviting... but how do we stop the craziness?  I wonder if the second command isn’t the key to being able to carry out the first.

“Be still and know that I am God”. In North America one of our badges of honour is self-sufficiency.  We are conditioned to believe that your best and safest bet is to be in a position where you don’t need anyone else. Be master of your fate and maker of your destiny.  From the time we are toddlers “I can do it myself” is our mantra. While there is of course a necessary, healthy side to this there is also an insidious dark side which is reflective of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve decided they would like to switch roles and move from dependent receivers to independent controllers.  Yancey says, “To let God be God, of course, means climbing down from my own executive chair of control.”  God is God.  He is in the heavens and He is in control.  Scripture is clear that when I choose to follow Christ, to be a Christian, I am choosing to reverse the decision that Adam and Eve made. I relinquish control back to God.  I enter a place of full-dependence. I let God be God and let Him run the universe and my life. It’s tough to do, but every time I get a taste of releasing control and just being a child of my Heavenly Father I want more.  What about you?  Time for a vacation?