June 2022

 "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10). '

Nowadays, one reason we know so little about joy is that we know so little about stillness. In this age of the world, most of us are busy with a myriad of priorities and projects. And we pride ourselves in it. The person whose schedule is packed has more prestige than the fellow who "doesn't have much to do." But joy — real joy — is in seriously short supply.

We'll try to define "stillness" in a moment, but just think, by way of contrast, how unlikely it would be for joy to surface in the kind of lives we lead. Our "busyness" produces so much clamor and clatter, the voice of joy is drowned out. It simply gets lost in the shuffle. Even if joy were to appear, it would go unnoticed.

But what does it mean to be "still" before the Lord? It doesn't mean being physically still, though stillness of the body is often involved. And it doesn't mean not saying anything, though that is often involved as well. "Stillness" before God means reverence, humility, openness, and forgetfulness of self. It means putting our minds into a thoughtful posture. It means having our activity stilled and our words hushed by a compelling sense of the power of God Almighty. Above all, it means having a servant's readiness to obey: "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears" (I Samuel 3:9).

I suggest that it would be rare for a person to experience genuine joy if he or she were not mentally disposed in the manner we've just described. That is the only kind of environment in which real joy can make an appearance. Just as happiness eludes those who "pursue" it, joy is even harder to bring under our own power. It doesn't come "on command," but rather it is experienced, often quite unexpectedly, by those wh are "still" before the Lord. Unstill people are simply not good candidates for joy.

So God's instruction to us is this: Be still, and know that I am God. We shouldn't obey that instruction selfishly, simply so we can have the joy we want. Nevertheless, we won't have any joy if we don't obey it. Without a reverent stillness at the center of our hearts, joy has no chance to break through the noise of earthly life. Of all the killjoys in the world, irreverent busyness is the worst.

"The heart that is to be filled to the brim with holy joy must be held still" (George Bowes).

I am thinking this morning of all those who go unnoticed in their faithful service to God -- at least unnoticed by other people. So, here’s a nod of appreciation...

...to all of the husbands and wives who work hard at their marriage and honor their vows, even when it’s difficult.

...to all of the parents who sacrifice their time, energy, and sanity to not merely feed, clothe, and house their kids, but who are teaching them to love and serve the Lord.

...to those same parents who make hard decisions regarding priorities, standards, and morals in spite of the conflict that occasionally results (especially with pre-teens and teens).

...to the young people who are being faithful to the Lord, though in the minority and often ridiculed for such.

...to the single folks who persist in faith even though lonely and frustrated, who would love nothing more than to make a life with a godly spouse.

...to the men and women who maintain honesty, integrity, loyalty, kindness, service, and dedication in a work environment that encourages/promotes dishonesty, selfishness, and greed.

...to those who grieve the loss of someone yet don’t lose their trust in a good and loving God.

...to the folks who send cards, who take food, who find encouraging words to say, who serve silently and behind the scenes.

...to the folks who never miss services.

...to the preachers whose names are not known outside of their local work.

...to the elders who stay up late praying and are constantly working to help the folks they are leading.

...to the moms (and dads) who wrestle with toddlers throughout worship or bible class, but keep on going.

...to everyone who prays fervently and reads their Bibles diligently.

...to everyone who gets up every day and follows the Lord, no matter the circumstance or consequence.

Hebrews 11:35ff notes “others” who served faithfully in great difficulty, yet whose names are unknown to us. But God knew them. And God knows you.

You encourage me. Thanks. Keep it up.

Charles Plumb, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands.

He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, You were shot down!

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.

"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"

Plumb assured him," It sure did, if your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said, ‘Good morning, how are you?’ or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.” Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shroud lines and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory. He needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute.

“Stop and smell the roses” may be a cliché, but new research suggests it’s sound advice for finding satisfaction in life. A forthcoming study in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences suggests that appreciating the meaningful things and people in our lives may play an even larger role in our overall happiness than previously thought.

In the study, Rutgers University psychology professor Nancy Fagley had nearly 250 undergraduates take a survey measuring their levels of appreciation, which Fagley defines as “acknowledging the value and meaning of something—an event, a behavior, an object—and feeling positive emotional connection to it.”

This is distinct from gratitude, Fagley says, which is a positive emotion directed toward a benefactor in response to receiving a gift of some sort, and is just one of several aspects of appreciation, according to Fagley. Indeed, in his book Thanks!, Robert Emmons, perhaps the leading scientific expert on gratitude, writes that gratitude isn’t just about acknowledging the goodness in one’s life but also “recognizing that the source(s) of this goodness lie at least partially outside the self.”

Fagley’s survey of appreciation zeroed in on eight aspects of it, including awe—or feeling a sense of connection to nature or life itself—and living in the present moment.

The students in Fagley’s study also took surveys to evaluate their levels of gratitude and overall life satisfaction, and completed a standard questionnaire measuring what researchers call the Big 5 personality traits—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Fagley wanted to see whether appreciation carries distinct benefits on its own, regardless of one’s personality or level of gratitude.

Though Fagley found that appreciation and gratitude both seem to be strongly connected to happiness, her results suggest that appreciation is twice as significant as gratitude in determining overall satisfaction with life.

Students’ personality traits were also important to predicting life satisfaction—in fact, they seemed to be more important than their age, gender or ethnicity. Some aspects of personality—like being less neurotic and more outgoing—were linked to greater life satisfaction, Fagley says. However, being high in appreciation was significantly related to high life satisfaction regardless of one’s personality.

Past research has considered appreciation to be a byproduct of gratitude and one’s personality. This study shows that appreciation plays a significant role in one’s quality of life, independent of one’s personality or gratitude level—a role even more significant than previously thought.

Fagley is still researching how best to practice appreciation on a day-to-day-basis, she says. But for starters, she suggests that people focus on and value what they have, spend time outdoors, and reflect on their blessings and relationships with others.

“The challenge in fostering appreciation,” she says, “is that we want to periodically reflect on the positive aspects of our lives, value our friends and family, relish and savor the good times—without the practice of reflection becoming a rote habit or something that is taken for granted.”