Day 4 – Issue 15

Be Still Know

Psalm 84:6 (NLT)

‘When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.’

Sadness is an emotion that can creep up on me. The carefree days of my childhood and youth are now often replaced by the shadow of sadness.

All too easily I find myself living constrained by my sad thoughts, unable to reach for the joy that is God’s gift. Often such sadness is itself my motivation to withdraw. I turn in on myself, less to indulge the sadness, rather to avoid the effort of life’s many demands.

While the Psalmist speaks of turning the valley of Bacca, or tears, into springs, or a source of renewal and refreshment, I sometimes gaze upon what appears an unbridgeable chasm between my sadness and what scripture promises.

My sadness can be encouraged by what I experience as the monotonous regularity of the daily round. I quickly feel trapped within a process that is more about laying demands upon me, than it is about me making an impression upon it. The whole thing is then complicated for I am inextricably joined to others by ties of commitment and love, so I cannot act in my own name alone. One consequence is a deep weariness that weighs down my limbs, numbs my brain and makes me feel tearful and brittle.

For me stealing away to ‘Be still’ and contemplate God is a healthy first response. It is then reflecting upon how blessed my life is and recalling that I am here to serve and celebrate God’s love. These are the springs that as I drink from them I once again discover the willingness and the capacity to engage in life, however humdrum it seems through my lens. 

QUESTION: Have you experienced deep waves of inner sadness?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, when sadness takes hold, help me not despair but to hope and trust in you.