Be Still
There are so many things that feel familiar about this Minnesota summer: the picturesque clear blue sky, vibrant green trees that slowly sway in the breeze, serene lakes, and liveliness of our city filled with activity—just as it always does in the summer.
This is always the season that makes me remember why I love Minnesota so much. And yet, this summer feels drastically different. For me, I feel like my heart is still very suspicious of all the activity of the city; as if everyone is out like every other summer, trying to not remember the last few months we’ve all been through. Maybe there is a gift from God there. Maybe he has sent us this summer as a reprieve from all the darkness and worry in our hearts over the past few months.
The Anxiety
But I can’t help feeling myself getting anxious again for what’s to come. In trepidation I’m making plans of this fall and winter, having no idea what life will look like. Should we send our oldest son to a traditional school in his kindergarten year with so much uncertainty? When will the US/Canada borders reopen again so that I can see my family on the other side? Can I trust the leaders who are making the decisions relating to all things COVID? I feel my mind and my heart constantly flip-flopping between anxiety and trust in God.
The Battle
There are many places in the Bible that speak to this dynamic in our hearts; the old man and the new man perpetually fighting an epic battle in our souls. My experience of inner-war reminds me of when Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 26:41, right before he is to be crucified, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” In The Message paraphrase by Eugene Peterson, Peterson says it this way, “There is part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.” I feel this. I feel this daily. There is part of my soul that is ready to trust God in anything, and part of it is so lazy and lacks strength, so I turn to anxiety instead of Jesus.
Sometimes my soul needs a sharp kick to turn from anxiety to trust, and there is a familiar passage in James that always helps to get my perspective right. James 4:13–15 says:
“Come now, you who say ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”
There’s nothing like hearing you’re like a vanishing mist to gain perspective on your life and decisions, amiright?! But seriously, this passage is one that I come back to over and over again. If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
The Peace
This is not at all to minimize the real anxiety and decisions we have to make in life. But this helps get my heart in the right place to face the future, whatever it may hold. God is in control and I can trust him for whatever tomorrow, this fall, or next year brings us. He is not surprised by COVID, he is fully in control of all that is happening in the world right now. He is so powerful that as we heard preached last Sunday in Psalm 29, “the God of glory thunders… The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars… The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.” And do you remember how that Psalm ends? It’s very telling of who God is and how intimately and deeply he knows our human frame and our disposition to anxiety and fear. In verse 11 it says, “May the Lord bless his people with peace!” Peace. I know that’s what I want for my disjointed soul, I want the peace of the Lord to reign.
Be Still
So if you have some time outside in the quiet in this beautiful Minnesota summer, let your soul be still before the Lord. Turn off all the busy, all the bustle, and all the noise. Just be still. Let your Savior speak to your weary soul in the quiet. And he will speak peace over you in a season of global uncertainty. He will speak his sovereignty over all history, time, and space. He will meet you. You need only to be still.