The Gift of Stillness (Pt 1)

A Few Questions

What is your greatest need right now? Also, what do you really want to see happen before another year concludes next month?

As you think about the answers to these questions, I have another one for you: Do you believe that there is a grace so effective and complete that it has the power to position you to receive the answers you need?

If so, what is that grace?

I start with these questions because they’re what I’ve asked myself the last couple of weeks and the answer I’m discovering to them has been life-giving.

 A Long, Long Walk

This piece picks up where Broom Tree Mercy and The Soul Care of Elijah left off. As a quick recap, I wrote about Elijah, one of God’s prophets, and the crossroads he found himself facing when he was at the end of his rope. I wrote about how, when Elijah literally asked the Lord to end everything, God lovingly and mercifully let him sleep and made him lunch instead. If you haven’t read it yet, check out Part 1 and 2 of that post here and here.

Today’s post tells the story of what happened after Elijah was replenished physically, and it can be found in 1 Kings 19:8-13.

Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Amazing. After nourishing Elijah with what sounds like the original superfood, the Lord sent him on a 40-day walk to Mount Horeb. He’d received the physical nourishment needed and it was clear Elijah wasn’t alone and that heavenly help was there, but Elijah was still in need—in need of direction, in need of reassurance, and in need of courage. The food Elijah ate couldn’t address the needs of his heart and soul, but apparently a walk could, so God had him take one. A very long one. One that lasted 40-days in the barren stillness of the wilderness.

Country Roads, Take Me Home

As Elijah walked along, I’m not sure what his state of mind was, but he wasn’t asking to die anymore. Something had shifted. Perhaps things had shifted to the point where he was able to strike up a tune as he headed towards his destination. Maybe not on Day 1 or even 10, but perhaps by Day 27. If he ever got around to a humming mood, I like to imagine that what he sung to himself sounded a lot like the refrain, “Country roads, take me home. To the place I belong.”

No doubt Elijah would have, of course, swapped out West Virginia for Mount Horeb (if you don’t know the song I’m talking about, I’ll see you on the other side of your Google search 😉).

Joking aside, I’m a tad serious. I imagine that, at some point, Elijah began to settle down and settle in as he walked along the open road. And, as his perspective was met by wide vistas and open space, the newly found calm in his soul found voice and expression in a quietly hummed tune.

Perhaps you can relate? I know that for me there really is something about getting out and going on a walk, (and if the view of a mountain range looms ahead, all the better). John Denver’s classic song rings true because he captured the sense that getting out on the open road brings.

So what is it about open space, nature, and undisturbed quiet that soothes and smooths a rumpled soul? Simply, these things usher in stillness. The kind of stillness that can settle a racing heart, quiet fearful speculations, and simultaneously strengthen as it clarifies and reminds our hearts about the truest things.  

I believe this is what Elijah encountered on his long walk to Mount Horeb as the wilderness stretched before him.

How incredible that stillness and solitude were also a part of God’s provision for Elijah. The Lord didn’t just meet Elijah’s physical needs, he also met his emotional and spiritual needs. The fact is, Elijah desperately needed to hear God speak into his situation and to his troubles, but before Elijah could receive direction and reassurance that he wasn’t the only prophet left in all Israel, he needed stillness. Stillness preceded God’s speaking.

Not only that but stillness also preceded the ability to receive what was being spoken. Elijah had 40-days to settle down which, I believe, positioned him to discern God’s voice all the more clearly when the Lord really did speak. Elijah was able to identify that the Lord wasn’t speaking in the pyrotechnics show, but that he was in the sound of a gentle whisper. A “still small voice,” according to some bible translations.

Perhaps Elijah was able to recognize God’s ‘still small voice’ because this was the very sound that had surrounded and accompanied him as he journeyed through the wilderness to Mount Horeb. He’d had 40-days of practicing listening to stillness, so when it showed up again on the mountain top, he was able to discern it.

Stillness Isn’t Just for Introverts

So Elijah walked and walked and walked. And as he did, he encountered stillness.

Remember the question I posed earlier: Is there a grace so effective and complete that it has the power to position you to receive the answers you need? I believe that stillness is that grace. It is the help God offers that can help position us to discern and receive the answers we need.

But how can stillness hold so much possibility? Well, because it helps us tune in and more accurately assess where we are and how we’re really doing. It is the pause that helps us begin to identify what we truly need, which is empowering because this enables us to name what’s up and bring this to God. It positions us to become not only aware of ourselves and our soul’s well-being, but it also positions us to become aware of God—of his presence, his voice, and his help.

I love that before God launched into supplying Elijah with the answers he needed, the Lord asked him, “What are you doing here?” Or to put it another way, “What’s going on?” And Elijah was able to tell God exactly what was troubling him. This dialogue was very different from the one that had taken place 40-days prior when, at that moment, the only thing Elijah told God was that he was done, and the only thing God said in response was, “Arise and eat.”

But then stillness stepped in and shifted the conversation. And stillness is also what opened the door for things to move forward in hope for Elijah.

Yes, this is the power of stillness. And this quality of inner quietness, which helps us better assess our circumstances and needs, isn’t just for the personality types we typically expect would love stillness. It is something we all need. It is to our souls what oxygen is to our lungs and we could all stand to have in greater measure.

So we need stillness, but in our world it is rather elusive. Why is that? More importantly, how can we find it and begin to make greater space for it in our lives?

I write about that in Part Two of this post. Read it here.

Kemi