I have this bamboo wind chime. I’m listening to it as I write. Every few seconds it makes a soft melodic chime. Unfortunately, I can hear cars in the background... so I just have to try to blot them out.

    The wind chime was my Christmas gift from my husband, Gary, the year of the horrible Typhoon Paka. We were living on Guam at that time. The storm hit us in the middle of December. Those raging storms are incredible and the clean up afterwards is such hard work. But after a few days, you get things as back to normal as possible and relax. You may be without electricity for several more days... or maybe even weeks. You can’t do much of anything, especially if it requires external power — no working with electric tools, no cooking with electric ovens, no working on the computer. It’s VERY quiet. There is no refrigerator humming, no television blaring, no radio blasting, and no fan whizzing and whirring. All we had were windows open to the breeze. So, after Paka, the only sound in that silence was my beautiful new bamboo wind chime stirred by heaven’s breezes. Now the wind’s music on my wind chime reminds me of the calm after the storm. I treasure it as one of my favorite things.

On the evening of that same day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they left the crowd; the disciples got into the boat in which Jesus was already sitting, and they took him with them. Other boats were there too. Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that is was about to fill with water. Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?” Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, “Be quiet!” and he said to the waves, “Be still!” The wind died down, and there was a great calm. (Mark 4:35-39)

    We’re all very familiar with the more common phrase, “Peace. Be still.” I’ve read commentaries and have heard sermons using this is as a great analogy for our lives. In my Bible, I have written “Voyage of Life” alongside this passage. I don’t know about you, but that is what I need sometimes in the stormy voyages of life: “Peace. Be still.”

    This passage reminds me of a similar message from God to us found in Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God,” He tells us.

    Being able to click to different versions instantly on the computer is incredible! Listen to the various wordings for Jesus’ words to the storm:

• Hush!
• Quiet down!
• Be still, absolutely still.
• Peace, be at rest.
• Silence!
• Be mute.
• Shalom! Be still.

    And these from Psalm 46:

• Be silent and know.
• Calm down and learn.
• Stop fighting and learn.
• Be still and see.
• Let go of your concerns! Then you will know.
• Cease striving and learn.
• Enough!

Enough!

    In our hectic lives of jobs and meetings, appointments and expectations, chores and duties, we also try to make sure we’re making plenty of time for pleasure. So we fill more of our already hectic time with parties and picnics, movies and malls. We go dashing off to church in a hurry, trying to clear our minds of all the outside pressures of the world — our finances, our stress at work, and what in the world we’re going to cook for dinner — so that we can worship freely.

    I liked that version that reads, “Enough!”

    For many, myself included, this has been a disastrous year financially. Our investments have fallen incredibly. For a few months I was just consumed with it. Watching the markets and spending all my energy worrying about the situation. I need to hear Jesus say, “Quiet down!” I needed to hear God’s reminder in the wind: “Enough!”

    I’m enjoying reflecting on these Scriptures, and believing that the Spirit has been telling me, “Enough! Calm down. Peace. Be still, absolutely still.” I started thinking about this last night when I got in bed. I woke up this morning thinking about it, and couldn’t wait to start looking up those Scriptures. And I thought to myself, “How nice to wake up consumed by this, and not by the stock market.”

    Let’s hear our wind chime bring God’s message of “Enough!” Let’s ride on heaven’s breeze wake up the Spirit’s peace.

 

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© 2002, Sandy Fields. Used by permission.

Title: "The Spirit Produces Peace"
Author: Sandy Fields
Publication Date: September 15, 2002