“ ‘Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!’ ” Psalm 46:10 (ESV)
Sometimes it is all just too much. War. Poverty. Violence. Injustice. The unending stream of news pours in from social media and TV and radio stations. Something is terribly wrong with our world. This is not how it should be.
And yet we find ourselves powerless in the face of it. Yes, we try to speak up, to raise our voice on behalf of those who can’t, to stem the tide of evil, even in the everyday. But still, the storm rages on.
How can we find peace when the world around us is in chaos?
The disciples wondered the same thing. When the waves crashed around their little fishing boat, hurling it high above the waters, pushing it violently from side to side, they ran to find Jesus—only to find that He was asleep. They took His slumber to mean that He did not care; they misunderstood His peace for indifference. Jesus arose, and rebuked not first the storm, but their lack of faith. And then He addressed the wind and the waves: “Peace. Be still.”
And it was. All became well.
St. John had a vision on the Isle of Patmos that one day, when Jesus appears, He will make all creation new, joining heaven and earth as one. On that day, Jesus, emerging not from rest but from reigning at the right hand of the Father, would wipe away every tear and destroy death at last. And then St. John says a strange thing: he says that the sea will be no more. The sea in ancient Israelite imagery was the place where monsters dwelt, the sign of primordial chaos. To do away with the sea was to deal with Evil at last.
So, yes: the world is in chaos. All is not as it should be. But be still for a moment, and you will see: God is in charge. He is the Lord of the wind and the waves. And one day, He will utter the words that make the storm to cease at last, and all shall be well. Peace will come.
Psalm 46 describes the uproar and chaos of the world. And yet the psalmist leads us to a place of stillness, of knowing that God is still God. To know this is to experience a foretaste of that peace now.
So, be still and know, He is God.