Dear Friends and Family of RRUMC,
I don’t know about all of you, but life sure seems to just be getting crazier and crazier. It seems like life is moving in fast forward most of the time. Have you ever said that you want to have a time when you can just sit and relax? Have you ever thought to yourself that you just want a break from the craziness of life? I feel like we are in a society where you hit the throttle and you never let off of it until you die or crash. Neither of those are good.
I have been driven to a Scripture more and more over the last three years. It is Psalm 46. In the wake of the world that we have now lived in since the pandemic entered the scene in March of 2020, this Psalm has spoken deep into my heart and soul. (I am hoping that right now you are looking it up so that it is there next to you.) It says in verses 2 and 3, “though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” That’s what life feels like for so many people right now.
How can we find peace in the midst of the mountains falling and the earth giving way in our lives? The psalmist reminds us that God is the one that calms all of those things and calms us in the midst of them. God is the one who protects us and delivers us from the earth giving way and the mountains crashing into the sea. The verse that speaks to me the most is verse 10, where God says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
What does be still mean for us today? The word STILL means a deep silence and calm, not moving or making a sound. Doesn’t that sound fantastic? What I have come to learn is that those kind of moments don’t just happen. We must seek them out. We must create them. We must live into them when we find them. God did that on the seventh day when He rested in the creation story. He showed us what Sabbath can/should look like. It is supposed to be a day when we don’t just not work, but we use that day to seek God and his love and grace in our lives.
In our world, we have planned that time out of our lives - me included. Last week, September 4, was one of the best Sabbath Sundays I have had in my 27 years of Christian ministry. I needed Sunday that day more than I ever have in my life. That day, even though I was preaching and leading worship, I felt God pour his love and grace into my life. I was truly worshipping while leading.
Come back to church and see what God is doing for you and with you on the Sabbath. If your life is full throttle, God knows how to help you ease off the pedal in order to find Him. God showed us how to be still. God showed us how to live into Sabbath. The rest is on us to do our part.
Grace and peace are available to you in the midst of the craziness of life. Will you allow yourself to BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD?
Peace and Blessings,
Rev. Dan