Be Still

This is my favorite song - well, my favorite hymn.  I just like it.  The other week, we were somewhere and someone played it.  I hadn't heard it for years, but I still know it.  I also like the song "We Rest on Thee" which is the same tune as this one.  But of the two, this is my favorite.

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

But even as I listened to it the other week, my heart was not at rest in me.  "Be still my soul, the God doth undertake to guide they future as He has thy past".  When its been a year like this, when all that God has guided us through so far - well, it hasn't exactly been something I would want to go through again, when friends have hurt us and left us struggling to understand, when we've lost ones we love, when..... well, the assurance that God will guide the future as He has the past really ain't all that reassuring!  Actually, in all reality, I'd prefer Him to guide to a smoother path!

But I have a choice - to trust or not to trust.  And there are things which reassure me,  "in every change, He faithful will remain".  Every one.  Even the ones where I run off and throw a hissy fit about how difficult life is being.  He won't shake His head at my foolishness and say, "Ack, I've got better things to do than mess with that one."  Not even if others have said that.  He will remain faithful.

Then some lines I love, "be still, my soul, the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below."  Yet while He was here, He allowed those waves and winds - even to the point that strong men, men used to boats, thought they were going to die and panicked.  Still, all that storm, all that panic, and it only took two words from his voice.  Be Still.

I know that He will not let me sink.  But I am getting a little seasick here.  Seasick and bruised from being battered about in a boat.  Waiting for the sound of those two words, "Be still". 

Except that He seems to be speaking them to my heart and not to the waves....