Psalm 46:10a
Be still, and know that I am God.
A Visit from Marco, Sherrie, and Ashley
This weekend, I had the immense privilege of hearing a missionary from Italy. The preceding text was the one from which he preached on Sunday, and I must admit that I was torn to pieces. It was perhaps the most important sermon I've ever heard. I needed it. Marco helped me realize that I spend too much time looking at a TV screen and not enough time looking at Christ.
This weekend, I had the immense privilege of hearing a missionary from Italy. The preceding text was the one from which he preached on Sunday, and I must admit that I was torn to pieces. It was perhaps the most important sermon I've ever heard. I needed it. Marco helped me realize that I spend too much time looking at a TV screen and not enough time looking at Christ.
Look!
In the second appendix of his book Think, Piper introduces a story of an aspiring scientist who was required to look at a fish for four straight school days. He didn't use a magnifying glass or a microscope - just his eyes and his bare hands. After reporting his observations to his professor day after day, the teacher would respond, "That's good. But that's not all. Look again!" A few days went by, and the student heard the same thing over and over again: "Look. Look! Look!"
In the second appendix of his book Think, Piper introduces a story of an aspiring scientist who was required to look at a fish for four straight school days. He didn't use a magnifying glass or a microscope - just his eyes and his bare hands. After reporting his observations to his professor day after day, the teacher would respond, "That's good. But that's not all. Look again!" A few days went by, and the student heard the same thing over and over again: "Look. Look! Look!"
He drew pictures, felt the fins, counted the scales, smelled it, stuck his fingers down the fish's throat to feel how sharp the teeth were, gazed into its eyes to see the lids - if it was on the fish, he smelled it, felt it, and stared at it endlessly. Needless to say, when the four days had passed the student knew more about that fish than anyone on his campus. And it was only because he looked.
What Piper (and Marco DeFelice) meant: Look, look, look! Look!
Where is My Mind?
My looking began with Psalm 63:3. For quite some time I could not understand how "steadfast love" and "life" were comparable ideas - the verse says that God's "steadfast love is better than life." I didn't get it. But it sounded beautiful, so I looked. And I looked again. That was some 15 months ago. (I haven't stopped looking).
My looking began with Psalm 63:3. For quite some time I could not understand how "steadfast love" and "life" were comparable ideas - the verse says that God's "steadfast love is better than life." I didn't get it. But it sounded beautiful, so I looked. And I looked again. That was some 15 months ago. (I haven't stopped looking).
But in other areas, I know I haven't spent enough time looking. And Marco rightly pointed out to me that I'm distracted by phones, TV, electronics, music, work, school, and everything else that's stealing my thoughts. I want to take every thought captive, so I'm going to be still.
Applications
And right now, being still means throwing TV completely out of my life. It means Psalm-reading comes before I start school, not after. It means amputating football-watching, BWWs, and any texting that is void of Jesus. Oh, my soul cries out with all that I am: I want to know God! I want to know Christ! And I want nothing else!
Brothers, sisters - we cannot know God more deeply if we don't actively pursue silence before God and prayer unto His throne. We cannot have the iPod on 24/7 and expect to grow even an inch. How can we begin to muse on the great works of our great God if we're focused on not-so-great TV shows?
If it Will Not Help Me Know, it Will Not Help Me Grow
This is my resolution: if there is something that will not help me grow to become more like Christ, it will not be an active part of my life. Coram Deo. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. I will be silent. But to You, O Savior, to You and to You alone be the glory!
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