To Be Still and Know That YOU Are Known

Psalm 46. I was going to hone in on verse 10, but then….the whole chapter is what I’m really talking about so,

1 God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present  help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. 

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
    God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

When I was younger, before I knew Jesus, and even after, because some things don’t change in an instant, I had this response to hurt or fear that looked a lot closer to anger. I would put on this thick layer of mixed emotions that included, but not limited to (some words changed to keep it clean), sarcasm, toughness, arrogance, sass, ….

But in a word, I was afraid. Afraid someone would see my hurt. Afraid I would appear weak. Afraid someone would see, or hear, me say, or do, something ‘stupid’. Afraid I was unwanted. Afraid of loneliness. Afraid of being hurt, again.

So, my defense was to bow up, and sometime hurt others, in order to keep those feelings from being seen.

Its not Easy to learn to be COMFORTABLE with who you are, but its worth it.

It took a long time to soften those tough defenses, but over time, Jesus made His way in and saw me. He saw my defenses then showed me my actions through his eyes. I realized that God knows me, has known me, knows my future, and still loves me deeply. He’s provided a way for me to be known and not just that, but He wants to know me.

There is something freeing about the idea that the God of the universe likes me enough to have created me, send His Son to die for me, knows everything about me, and STILL called me into relationship with Him. At my worst, He did that. So what can man say, or do? The short answer is, nothing. There is nothing that should cause me to shrink and hide, to turn on my deepest defenses in attempt to protect my realest self.

Realizing your defensive postures is not a ticket to behave badly when you are mad, sad or hurt. It is a window that reveals your heart through reflection, but then allows you to open it and move through to the other side. We don’t have to remain what we’ve always been. We don’t have to act the way we’ve always acted. God invites us to see ourselves as He sees us. In a very similar way as when we say to our children, “If you could just see yourself as I see you”, God says, “If you could just see yourself as I created you”, even as we see how the strong will of a child could be a benefit in their future, or how a bossy child might one day be a strong leader, God sees our weaknesses intricately woven into who we are. To hide, stifle or mask them as a means of defense from a critical world is cutting off a beautiful piece of the Father’s creation of you.

Be known. It takes time, but if you can openly allow yourself to be known by the Father (spoiler alert: He already does whether or not you allow it!), you will find it is less and less scary to let others know the wonderful you that God created you to be! You don’t have to hide behind the facade of anger, or fitting in, or showing out, or blending in. You can just be YOU. It is an awful, dangerous thing that we’ve done as a society that causes us to feel like we must hide struggles, or the raking over coals that comes with admitting a problem, or sin struggle, or the hanging out to dry of someone because they have a physical or spoken mis-step. Like Paul’s conversion and following walk, what gave him a powerful testimony was admitting who he was, where he had been, what God had brought him to and through, even up to his last letters, admitting that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 1 Tim 1:15

The only way to change the narrative, is for each person to decide who God made me to be is more important than what society deems worthy. This is not a call to be a chump because you’ve always been a chump, but to ask God for that window, to see your sin, to see yourself, as He sees you, then take His hand as He leads you through to the other side, changed, loved, seen and known.

Love, and Happy Mother’s Day,

~Jules