Staying Silent

Psalm 4:4-5

      It is hard to stay silent when the world is against you. We normally want to defend ourselves, to stand up and fight. In fact, protection is one of the deepest wiring circuits in our brains. Safety bypasses and overrides many other circuits in the brain. When safety and security are so wired into our brain that they take over, we run on autopilot, taking whatever action we need to make it through.

      The problem with this kind of autopilot is that sometimes it can get triggered when there is no real emergency. Because some current event is like a previous dangerous event, our brain may treat the current event with the same intensity that the previous event needed. There can be an overreaction in the present moment based on this past experience when safety and security was threatened.

      David was in a difficult situation. His son Absalom was trying to kill him and take over the government. Absalom wanted to be king in his father’s place. He had poisoned the hearts of the people with lies about his father. He had raised their fear level in order to manipulate them. Their emotions were in charge. And emotions can change in a moment. Emotional energy can easily be shifted and redirected. And David knew this.

      I think that is why right in the middle of this Psalm David wants to press the pause button. He wants to get them to slow down, to think about what they are trying to do. He knows they are running on adrenaline, and he wants to bring them back down to earth. He wants to ground them so they will make more righteous decisions.

      So David wants them to relax. It is OK to feel fear. Fear is a God-given emotion. But to stay in fear, to live there, is not a good thing. David wants them to purposely slow down. He wants them to not sin when anger is in charge.

      One of the biggest difficulties with getting anger out of the driver’s seat in your life is the multitude of voices that keep angry responses as the first and perhaps only response. But when the survival trigger has been pulled, it is almost impossible to stop. So David pulls their attention to when they are alone, in bed. God designed sleep as a time of restoration of balance in our brains. The chemical cocktail that was released as a result of the dangerous situation works its way through the system and our bodies and mind can settle back down into a healthier state. We return to homeostasis.

      So David wants them to use the time in bed to quiet their hearts and minds. This requires purposefully focusing on the LORD rather than on the issues at hand. And order to do this we must learn to be silent. We must turn off the voices that push us to immediate action. We must examine the autonomic thought process, those thoughts that automatically arise and push us to do something. That is why we search our hearts. We look at the thoughts and take them apart, piece by piece. We don’t answer them or defend them. We just look at them. We are silent. We don’t stir them up. We just look at the video footage and let the tape roll.

      We then take responsibility for our role in the activity. We might need to confess our sinful attitude and actions. Pride might have crept into our lives. Independence from the LORD might have taken hold. We offer a broken and contrite heart to the LORD. This is the sacrifice of the righteous person, the person in right relationship with the LORD. We step off the podium of importance and humbly take a knee before Him. We acknowledge His position of being in charge of our lives. We yield our will to His, our actions to His approval. We give up the illusion of control and surrender.

       But we must remain silent in order to hear the LORD in those moments. We must quiet the voices and allow His voice to become the primary voice we hear. This requires trust. We must believe that He will protect us, sustain us, provide a way for us. If we are going to hear His voice, we must learn to be silent before Him.

Practical Matters

Mark 8:1-3

      Life is filled with so many small, practical matters. We develop mental checklists to manage them. If you have small children you have probably perfected this by now. There is the “out the door for shopping” checklist. Diapers, wipes, drink, distracting toys, treat. Check, check, check, check, check. We all have these types of checklists.

      Shower, shave, teeth, underwear, pants, shirt, socks, shoes, car keys, gas, map, time. We all have these checklists of practical things. Many times we don’t even realize we are going through a checklist, we just do it. But these small practical matters make up the majority of our lives. Most of life is pretty boring, pretty routine, not much change.

      Every pilot of every airplane must go through a preflight checklist before they dare take the plane into the air. All those switches and knobs are connected to the systems that keep the plane safe and comfortable. Despite the fantastic safety record, flying is a delicate operation. Everything must work, or the flight could be in jeopardy. So they follow along through a flipchart book, step by step, item by item. Even the most experienced pilots walk through these checklists. They are not checking themselves and their ability, they are checking the ability of the plane’s systems, something over which they have no control.

      Jesus is training His disciples. He is teaching them to think ahead, to make sure they are prepared for the upcoming tasks. This ability to mentally walk into the future and brainstorm possible outcomes is important. We all need to think through second and third order effects. We do this by asking a simple question of ourselves repeatedly: What’s next? So we make a future choice and then ask the ‘what’s next’ question. We do this with multiple choices. Then we take each of the results of those questions and make the next choice, and ask the ‘what’s next’ question again.

      Jesus has been teaching a crowd of people for three days and they have run out of food. They obviously can’t call the local Events Coordinator and get a meal package for the thousands. So what does Jesus do? He calls His disciples and gets them involved. I think Jesus knew all along what His next actions would be, but wanted to include His disciples. He heightens the need in them by pointing out the danger of them traveling on an empty stomach. He points it out in order to make what He is going to do stand out among the many things He has been doing.

      I am sure they became a bit overwhelmed in that moment, thinking about how they could feed all these people. There is this need of food over which they have no control. Jesus want them to take ownership in order to feel their own inadequacy. He wants them to feel a little bit of pain in order to know what relief feels like.

      We can’t be so focused on the moment, that we fail to plan for the future. I think this is especially true when things are not going well, when we are stressed or in some type of pain. All we can see is the immediate trouble; we can’t see the possible solutions.

      Next time you face a challenge, begin to make hypothetical choices and then ask the ‘what’s next’ question. See if you can walk into the future in your mind.

Authority’s Care

Mark 4:39

      Have you ever been afraid of a barking, growling dog? It catches you off guard and suddenly there it is, and you are on its lunch menu. I am sure you have seen the news stories about dogs mauling people. If the people survive the damage is long-lasting and often life-altering. One breed is often the culprit. They have been breed to be mean and then the owners wonder how their dog could have done such a thing. Some places have banned the bread altogether.

      I have been caught by surprise several times in my life. In those moments I just want to yell, “Shut Up!” and have the dog obey. But that doesn’t seem to work, at least for me. A few times there has been a temporary lull in the barking, but then it starts right back up again. My words just don’t have any power over the dogs. But when the owner comes out and speaks to the dog, it listens. The owner’s words mean something to the dog. The dog recognizes the owner’s authority to get them to shut up.

      Words like this don’t mean much unless there is authority to back them up. If you try to tell someone else’s teenager to stop something, they just look at you and say, “You’re not my parent” and walk away. They know we don’t have the authority to get them to obey.

      Jesus has been asleep in the back of the boat. The storm has overtaken them, and even the experienced sailors are taken up in fear. They have tried everything they know and still there is no change in their situation. They think Jesus doesn’t care. Nothing could be further from the truth.

      Lack of action does not mean lack of care. And what Jesus does to solve the problem of the storm shows that He does care about their safety. Once Jesus is awoken He simply speaks to the storm and it obeys. The word Jesus uses for “quiet” or “shut up” is the same word Jesus uses when He is telling demons to be quiet, to stop speaking.

      When someone is “quiet” in this sense they are unable to talk because they know the person who told them to be quiet has the authority to tell them and the power to enforce the silence. Jesus spoke to demons and they obeyed because Jesus in God, and He has the authority and the power to back up His words with actions, actions that will result in involuntary silence. Jesus is like the dog’s owner or the teenager’s parents. He has authority to speak to demons and tell them to shut up.

      Jesus talks to the storm as if it were a noisy dog under His authority. And the storm listens because it is under His authority. Jesus has the right to speak to the storm. It may be very hard for us to accept, but Jesus has the right to control the weather because He is the One who created the weather.

      Before you get too far off course, just because He created it does not mean that every weather related tragedy is a distinct act of God aimed at those who are affected. Jesus does not send lightning bolts at people to carry out judgment. At this point in time God allows the results of sin to move in the world and this includes weather.

      The Psalms (89:8-9; 104:5-9; 106:8-9; 107:23-32) declare that the LORD has authority over the elements. He created them and He can take them under control of them at a moment’s notice. That is because He has the authority to do so.

      I would not suggest that you become a “Storm Chaser” and travel the country speaking to storms. You don’t have that authority. Jesus did and does. He spoke to the storm and it listened and obeyed. As God in the flesh He has that authority.

Impulse Control

Proverbs 15:24

      I’ve been doing research for a Masters level course that I need. The paper is about vitamin supplements and whether or not they really have a positive effect on cognitive functioning and length of life. Part of what I have read demonstrates the desire to live longer, and for some people at any cost. I am sure you have heard of scientists learning to grow replacement organs. Just so you know, about the only thing that really works is calorie restriction, dropping your calorie intake down to 70% of your baseline intake. This constant state of ‘starvation’ causes changes in the cells that prevent the cells from producing the age-causing molecular changes.

      People who control their impulses do better in life. This is one of the tasks of adolescents, learning to control their desires to jump into things too quickly. This is a vital skill that some people never learn. I am not talking about thrill-seeking behavior, necessarily. I am talking about the moment by moment control of what we do and think.

      Our proverb tells us that the prudent person, someone who controls what they do by using their reasoning abilities, will have a longer life. They won’t take unnecessary risks. They think before they act. They recognize danger and respond appropriately.

      I want you to know that I am resisting the impulse to drop my calorie intake to 70%! I want to live a healthy and productive life. Maybe I will consider dropping my calories. Time will tell.