Take Time, Especially Now, to be Still and Know That He is God

Sunday evening, November 13: My daughter and I were heading south through Michigan at the end of a trip up north. We were looking for a place to stop for a quick coffee break. We pulled off the road, barely aware that we were in Ann Arbor. When we got to Starbucks it was impossible to miss it, though: college students in maize and blue everywhere. Standing in line, I whispered to her, “maybe we should tell them we’re here to share their pain.”

Now, you need to know that I graduated from Michigan State University, strong rivals with the University of Michigan, which is located in Ann Arbor. Michigan had just lost its first football game of the season the day before — a crushing last-second loss to unranked Iowa. My daughter answered my suggestion, “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.” To which I replied with a sort of a wink, “I didn’t say we should gloat.”

There were three great upsets in college football on Saturday, leaving campuses around the country full of ecstatic winners and dejected losers. None of them, however, was the upset of the week. That happened in Tuesday’s election. Reactions, as we all know, have been intense. There were more than a few scattered small pockets of people who saw that day as either a big win or a big loss.

I’ve been known to get so emotionally involved in football games that I’ve made myself unpleasant to be around. Ask my family — or no, better if you don’t. I’ve learned, though, and now when I feel that kind of game anxiety arising in me I turn the TV off or I leave the room. It’s just a game, after all.

A presidential election isn’t just a game. This has been a high-anxiety week, and we can neither turn it off nor (celebrities’ assurances they would move to Canada notwithstanding) leave the room. Some of the country — too much of it — is in uproar. Is there any way to draw a deep breath and calm down?

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46 is one place. It tells us in verse 1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” What kind of trouble? Natural disaster, for one thing. (Verses 2 and 3 speak of mountains that “shake” and “tremble”. Two major earthquakes struck over the weekend.) And political troubles, even rage, for another (See verse 6 and your favorite cable news channel).

But the real “deep breath” verse is verse 10:

Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”

Be still. Slow down. Reflect. Recall: He is Lord. Remember how the Psalm opens (“our refuge and strength”). Go on to the following verse, which adds, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

I don’t know what outcome you were looking for in this election, so I don’t know whether you were ecstatic, relieved, disappointed or crushed. Wherever you are on that, you can rest calmly in the knowledge of God being with you as your fortress — and with our whole country, too, even while things seem so unsettled.

The country has a lot of healing and reuniting work to do. It won’t be easy. We’re all going to have to take some initiative to pull together. But let’s not forget to breathe. Let’s not forget to take the calming moment of remembering who our God is. Let’s be still for a while and know that He is God. Then we can roll up our sleeves and get to work.