Still Waters

“He leads me beside the still waters.” Psalm 23:2 NKJV

“God knows what you cannot, does what you could not, and offers love you should not live without.”

My thoughts today are about “still waters.”

Where do you go when life tumbles in on top of you? That’s really important to consider. Think about it for a moment; if your world seemed to be collapsing in ways you never imagined, what trusted name comes to your mind first? When you need to get away from where you are, to see things more clearly the way they are, where do you go?

Some years ago for my 44th birthday, a friend took me white water rafting in Colorado. It was not really something that I had ever wanted to do, but he insisted it “would be fun.” Most of the time, it was – beautiful scenery, cold, crystal-clear mountain water, and shallow, fast moving current.

But occasionally those cold Colorado waters became terrorizing, crashing against huge boulders as the river quickly dropped elevation. Suddenly, our raft would be thrust into minutes of white knuckle, white water experience. Our brief instructions previous to pushing off from shore were to prepare us in the inevitable chaos to listen for the guide’s voice, follow his directions exactly, and paddle fiercely only when instructed to do so. Quite an adrenalin rush!

And then almost as suddenly as it began, we were past that treacherous section and in the calmest of still waters at the river’s edge. Life can be a bit like that. All is well, even routine, and then there’s a severe pain you haven’t felt before; unexpected loss of job with bills and financial obligations you can’t meet, long saved investments worth fractions of what they were days before, a soul-numbing betrayal unanticipated, a cruel and stinging unkindness undeserved, or a doctor’s startling diagnosis unexpected. Suddenly you are in the middle of white knuckle, white-water life. That’s when you need the One who knows what you cannot, who does what you could not, and whose love you should not live without.

The disciples experienced that. Their trip across the lake began simply and safely enough, until a violent storm threatened to turn their world upside down. As the waves stung their cheeks and the wind howled its menacing threats, Jesus stood and “rebuked the winds and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ . . and it was completely calm.” Mark 4:35-41 NIV. Whatever your worries, whatever your fears, whatever the threats and dangers you feel, fear, and face, God knows when and how to lead you to still waters – sometimes far away from the storm and sometimes right in the midst of it! Either way, in His care you are safe, unharmed. See Psalm 46:1-4 TEV/Isaiah 43:2 NIV.

I have read that sheep will not drink from turbulent, fast moving waters. Innately, they are fearful, and rightly so. So a shepherd would find suitable, free flowing waters to refresh the flock and then gather enough stones to redirect the current, forming a shallow pool at water’s edge where the sheep could quench their thirst without need of fear. A good shepherd – and Jesus is a Great Shepherd! (See Hebrews 13:20-21 NLT) – would find a place, or with his own hands create a place, of safety and satisfaction. “The Lord is my Shepherd . . He leads me beside still waters.”

My prayer for you today is that you know the safety of God’s amazing love.