GOD’S CORNER n n n
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by Ger trude M. Puelicher
STILLNESS IS A RARE COMMODITY. It has no purchase value. Stillness is the lake between sunset and twilight when not a ripple disturbs the last gold, pink and lavender reflections of a rapidly disappearing ball of flame. Stillness is the outer trail at the dawn of a new day when not a twig crackles, when the night roaming forest animals, large and small, have blended into a watchful immobility. Stillness is the fragrance of a rosebud waiting to be released. Stillness is the first snowfall, gently, softly steady, that makes of our forest a new world. It may be a forerunner of icy surfaces and penetrating cold, but for the moment it is a soothing stillness covering like a warm blanket the marigold bed. Stillness is God in expression. Don’t accept that statement too lightly. Nor must you confuse stillness with silence. Silence is the absence of sound. Stillness is easing oneself into that Invisible Something within oneself that is greater than anything external to oneself. Does that seem too difficult a state to achieve? Only if life on the physical and mental level is of greater importance to you than life built on the spiritual. In a talk with a young woman in her late teens, she admitted she had once attempted suicide. Fortunately, she was found in time to be saved. She was no drug addict. She had never been in any kind of trouble. Her explanation? “Everything is all mixed
up. Nobody seems happy. What’s going to happen to this world?” She loves children, is a much-in-demand baby sitter, and wants to be a social worker. “I want to help kids. They sure need it.” Stillness is no part of youth’s thinking. Caught up in today’s pressures, they are fighting more than their immaturity can handle. Homes, schools, churches are no longer meeting their needs, and specifically that means parents, teachers, ministers or priests. A book high on the best seller list emphasizes the importance of stillness. “Commune with your heart…and be still,” the Psalmist advises. Surely when we come face to face with the within of ourselves, the resulting stillness must be spiritual fruitage. “I will both lay me down in peace and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” The most simple and yet profound directive on stillness is found in Psalm 46: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psychiatry would be less in demand; neurasthenia would decline could we accept the depth of meaning in those eight words. To “know that I am God” is consciously to shut out everything but God. To “be still” is to achieve the ultimate in peace, to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. Remember, stillness is God in expression. n
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