A calm spirit

He who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. (Proverbs 17:27)

Have you ever had so much internal agitation that you found it hard to talk rationally or act responsibly? There is nothing our enemy likes more than for that type of agitation to take over within us. Confusion is a great tactic to keep us in a muddle and cause us to be paralyzed with fear. Worrying does us no good, but that is what confusion brings - worry upon worry, until we are either not able to take action, or worse yet, we take action that is impulsive. The consequences of both are alarmingly similar - we stumble around in our confusion and find ourselves feeling pretty helpless and sometimes even hopeless.

Our passage reminds us that “a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.” How on earth can we enjoy a calm spirit when everything is coming at us at break-neck speed and in a disorderly manner? What some of us have yet to realize is that actually living with a calm mind requires training. We don't just gain a calm mind by osmosis! It requires us to get into scripture, allow it to get into us, and then we rehearse it time and time again. We pray scripture - especially when confusion abounds. This is why God tells us to bring every thought captive - training our minds to focus on him, not the confusion that abounds.

A calm spirit is desirable, but is it achievable? Yes, with every action we take to bring thoughts captive and to recount the promises/teaching in God's Word. Peace isn't going to come into confusion until we allow it access. Most of us have a hard time always being in a state of a 'calm spirit', but we can certainly focus on developing one. Knowledge is good - wisdom is better - understanding is awesome. We get all three the more we study what God says, how he acts, and then take steps to move when he moves. A calm spirit isn't hard to find - it is found in the presence of the one who brings all peace. Just sayin!

You buzzed?

The other morning, I happened upon a quote that caught my eye, not so much because it was majorly profound, but because it was just a little insightful. Kin Hubbard wrote, "A bee is never as busy as it seems; it's just that it can't buzz any slower." While that may not be labeled 'profound', it is quite revealing of how some of us go through life - buzzing, buzzing, buzzing, all the while appearing very busy, but really doing not much more than buzzing! We have those huge carpenter bees here in Arizona - some black and others kind of orange and black colors. They can come out of nowhere, then 'buzz' all around you incessantly until you wonder if they are eyeing you as a huge piece of wood they could burrow into! All the while, they are menacing, but not very productive in what they are doing!

Light, space, zest—that’s God! So, with him on my side I’m fearless, afraid of no one and nothing. When vandal hordes ride down ready to eat me alive, those bullies and toughs fall flat on their faces. When besieged, I’m calm as a baby. When all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool. I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet. That’s the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, the perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic. (Psalm 17:1-5 MSG)

Some of us would do well to recognized we are being besieged by all the hubbub around us, causing us to 'buzz' all the more, but really accomplishing very little with all that buzzing! Hell can rage around us, all the world can be in a 'buzz', but we don't have to be. It is possible for us to live at peace, to be calm in the midst of chaos, and to not just 'buzz' incessantly. Hubbard was also one to remind his readers that some people can look so busy that they actually appear to be indispensable. The truth of the matter is that appearances are one thing - the reality may be something quite different. When my grandsons were young and they first saw those big bees buzzing in my yard, they were noticeably frightened by both their size and their 'buzz'. When I explained they don't sting and they only like wood, they began to tolerate the 'intrusion', but were less concerned by it as time passed.

Sometimes we focus on the intrusions in life rather than on the stuff that really demands our attentiveness and determination. We listen to the buzzing instead of understanding the buzz is nothing more than a byproduct of activity. Not all activity is productive - nor is it necessary - sometimes it is just destructive. The carpenter bees knew where the wood pile was - they didn't have to look elsewhere. They left tell-tale signs to assure me they had plenty to gnaw upon - plenty to occupy their attention! So, why all the buzzing around? Did you know carpenter bees don't actually eat wood? They just destroy it! They burrow so as to have a place to reproduce - not because they are making a home for their colony. They are very isolated - not social at all. The 'buzz' we most often hear evokes a sense of fear in us, but it is usually from the male of the species - the ones that don't sting. The female is capable of stinging, but rarely does because the buzzing of the male makes people fearful of them.

Don't you think for a minute that buzzing is not distracting! The whole purpose of that male carpenter bee buzzing around our heads incessantly is to distract us from the 'gallery' or hole where the female is creating new life. More of that 'new life' that will do little more than create more damage and inflict countless hours of work and fear upon those unfortunate enough to be in their path of buzzing! While carpenter bees are not a really deep spiritual lesson, there are some lessons to take away today. First, not all buzzing deserves our attention. It is often the silence we should concern ourselves with more than the buzzing! Second, buzzing evokes fear in us - it is like chaos turns up the heat in our lives and we begin to buzz a little bit ourselves. As with my grandsons, we want to turn tail and run when we are 'buzzed upon' by those things that do little more than create menacing distractions in our lives. Remember this - many things may menace us, but only one thing calms us - God's presence! Just sayin!

I MUST calm down!

I must calm down and turn to God; only he can rescue me. (Psalm 62:1 ERV)

You "calm down" in direct proportion to your willingness to turn to God instead of the problem which is making you anxious or up tight right now. Turning to suggests that we must turn away from. There is a physical "relocation" of our attention - away from the problem at hand and toward the solution that is nearer than we might imagine. Calming down suggests there is a certain sense of escalation that comes in the midst of facing that problem or unpleasant circumstance in your path. Once again, our emotions get the best of us...and where our eyes are directed our heart will follow.

As our psalmist implies, there comes a point when we recognize all our efforts and angst over the situation will only increase until we actually realize we must have "calm" restored in order to see things as clearly as they are meant to be seen. Anxiety and stress over the problem are not going to be managed well when all we see is the problem. We have to have a moment or two to actually get a new perspective in order to see the solution. 

Much of the emotional stress we deal with in life is not really anyone else's fault. Sure, they may be involved in the problem, but they aren't the ones responsible for how we are emotionally connected to the problem - we are. It is our emotions that get all tangled up in the heart of the problem - the other individual can only attempt to goad us into more frenzy or panic, but they don't control the "panic level" in our lives.

Most of the time we need an "emotional rescue" in order to see the problem differently. Our emotions are spinning out of control, but until we squarely take our focus off the problem and turn to God, we only feed those out of control emotions. Give more fuel to a car speeding ahead out of control and you only create a more dangerous situation! 

When we turn to God, refocusing our attention on him, it is like me putting on my glasses in the morning and beginning to see things much differently in the room than before they were on. We get a clarity that was missing because our "vision" was so clouded or blurred by all the emotional upheaval in our lives. Unreasonable emotions begin to be exposed for the untruth they have encouraged us to believe - perceptions begin to get clarity.

The problem doesn't usually go away, but we can begin to work on it little by little just by getting those emotions under control. Control is only possible by changing our focus. Changing our focus actually changes how the problem will affect us and in turn, it brings the control of the problem squarely out of our court and places it in HIS. Just sayin!

The Spin Doesn't Have to Win

12 Lord, great blessings belong to those you discipline, to those you teach from your law. 13 You help them stay calm when trouble comes.  You will help them until the wicked are put in their graves. 14 The Lord will not leave his people. He will not leave them without help. 15 Justice will return and bring fairness.  And those who want to do right will be there to see it. (Psalm 94:12-15 ERV)

Willa Cather reminds us, "There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." God's care for those he loves outweighs any storm we endure, my friend. Troubles come, but God is the calming effect in the midst of even the stormiest of turmoil around us. We have a great deal of stress in our lives, but did you ever take inventory of some of that stress only to find it was "self-caused"? Some of the greatest stress we face is that which we bring upon ourselves! In those moments when I have realized it is "me" causing all that trouble and chaos in my life, I find great delight in God helping me to see just how to get out of whatever corner I am presently painting myself into!

When we are calmed by the hand of God, even when it means we have to sit still long enough to learn from whatever is occurring, we find ourselves settling into the rhythm of his movement and become less focused on the "rough motion" of the issues all around us. It is as though we turn "inward" for just a moment or two to get hold of the sense of his heartbeat deep within us and then we begin to move to that rhythm. Discipline isn't always a "spanking" - sometimes it is just a gentle reminder we haven't heard that rhythmic movement of his living and breathing deep within us for a while.

Two things for us to consider this morning:

1. The "calmness" we experience in the midst of the storm is in direct proportion to the focus we maintain on God throughout that storm. We cannot always avoid all storms, even those "self-caused", but in the midst of them, we can stop, look up, re-engage our senses and begin to experience a calm where only roughness, agitation, or harshness seems to abound. We may not be able to avoid the agitation, but we don't have to become agitated by it. In the center of a whirlpool, there is calm!

2. The discipline we receive isn't going to settle the storm, but it can settle us! We may not realize we have become so caught up in the storms around or within us until we begin to receive his corrective word within. As it begins to penetrate our hearts, we begin to realize the affect the storm has been having within us. In those times of peaceful repose, we begin to listen intently to God's direction "out of" the storm. 

It may never occur to us to ask for God's discipline - but what we are really seeking is his teaching - direction, refocus, and control. Just sayin!

Stress or Calm - It is all in the "now" we choose

I often see things on my social media feed which catch my attention. Some make me laugh, like the cats cavorting with each other, or the dog chasing his tail incessantly. Others make me cry, like the stories of hurting women sold into sex trafficking, or those of families losing everything to an overnight fire which ravaged their home. Every now and again, someone posts something which gives me seconds to pause and then to explore the scripture - simply because the words speak deeply to my spirit. One such post happened this morning. It read: Stress makes you believe that everything has to happen right now, faith reassures you that everything will happen in God's timing! (posted from Godfruits.com)  Read that again, will you - you might just discover something of truth in that so rich it leaves you pondering, as well.  Stress is that force exerted in your life which either pulls you or pushes you with such strength it is almost impossible to resist.  It works against rational thought and creates chaos in normally reasonably balanced emotions.  Yep, it indeed says everything must happen right now - if not, all will be lost.  It isn't rational, remember?  It isn't patient, remember?  It is urgent, demanding, nagging, and insistent!  It drives us to choose the timetable it places in our lives, not the one God has designed!

Sensible thoughts lead you to do right; foolish thoughts lead you to do wrong. (Ecclesiastes 10:2 CEV)

Stress has the greatest inroad into our lives through our thought life.  If we were to be honest here, we'd have to admit to the many times stress has played the main part in getting us off-track and down many a road we might best have left untraveled!  We get all wrapped up in the "what if" of every frenzied thought stress places in our minds and we run with the loudest thought - a trait I don't recommend to anyone!  The quietest thoughts are often the most rational ones, in case you haven't noticed that since you have been listening to those who scream the loudest!  Sensibility is not the foremost thought of a stressed life. In fact, you might just wonder if there is an sensibility in your life when stress is high and demands are mounting.  Sensibility is really an mental acuity which apprehends quickly.  Stress is often the force which keeps us tied up with thoughts which "dull" our ability to apprehend truth quickly - instead directing us to apprehend whatever it is pawning as the truth!

The difference between sensible thought and irrational thought is sometimes a matter of just a few seconds, but when stress is the "manipulating" factor in our lives, we often opt out of taking those extra few seconds to allow the sensible to come to the forefront.  Herein lies our greatest opportunity - to wait long enough for the dust created by the whirlwind of stress to settle.  In so doing, we often see something of truth which evaded our attention when the storm was raging.  One thing I have discovered - you cannot patch a leaky roof in the midst of the rainstorm.  You ride out the storm the best you can, then you set out to repair the leak.  Why?  The "adherence" of the shingle or the roofing tar is best when conditions are at the optimum, not at the worst!

Stress demands our attention, sends our emotions into overdrive, and clamors for immediate responses.  Learn this now and you may save yourself a great deal of trouble down the road.  The "immediacy" of the need presented by the thought we are entertaining might just be the "clue" we need to breaking free of the responses we have to the pull stress puts in our lives.  Rarely does God work this way - in fact, he tells us to wait upon him - to take time to discover his riches and find rest in his presence.  This is not the demands of "immediacy" which stress places in our minds - but the small voice that signals we need to step back and create a little "breathing room" in our lives.  

Over the last half year or so, I have observed something in my aging mother which comes as a little bit of a surprise to me considering her "slowness" in all she does.  When she wants something it is "now".  Let's go to the store "now". Write that down for me "now".  Maybe this is the result of being 96 and thinking life is short so she must take advantage of every moment.  I won't fault her for it.  She doesn't have a whole lot of "now" left, so I want her to take full advantage of it while she does!  But...I am not at the same place in my life and I cannot respond to everything in my life with such "immediacy".  In fact, I will probably make a whole lot of blundering moves if I do!  If I were to be honest, I have a whole journal of those already!  "Now" is the moment I step back and listen harder.  "Now" is the time it takes to settle my thoughts and listen intently for the still small voice of God.  "Now" is the time it takes between the whirlwind and the calm after the storm.

Stress demands we trudge through the storm blindly.  God's plan is for us to know peace.  Stress calls out for us to listen to the saga of frenzied thought it poses.  God's voice beckons us into a calm sanity.  I don't know about you, but I kind of like the idea of being calmly sane!  Just sayin!