Is It Well With Your Soul?
My wife is away for a few days, visiting a good friend in another state. I am glad she can get away, much needed for her. I am also a little apprehensive. This is the first time that I have been alone at home for any extended period since my stroke. No worries. I can do this! But, I must admit, my brain was feeling very chaotic, and my soul unsettled, yesterday afternoon. I went for a walk. After that, despite being very cold, I sat outside, praying for a few minutes.
Needing to warm up, I decided to go inside and do what I regularly do since my stroke to calm myself – art therapy. My first brush strokes were bright vivid colors. While they are bright, there is no order, no pattern. Very chaotic. Very random.
Usually as I paint, it allows my brain to interpret and communicate its chaos. However, yesterday that not working. I paint while listening to classical music. I decided to stop painting, turn off the music, and settle myself by simply being quiet, before and with God. As I sat in my dark art studio (okay, not really a studio, just our basement), with one of our cats in my lap, I began to feel a peace, a calmness, a sense of God’s presence. I allowed myself to simply be still, and in doing so, an overwhelming sense of peace and contentment began to reside in my soul. In those quiet moments I could say it is well with my soul.
So, I grabbed my Bible and turned to some of my favorite “be still” verses…
In Psalm 62, the psalmist shows a strong resilience in the Lord, for rest is found in Him – “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. For he alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress: I will not be shaken” (vv.5-6).
God himself says this in Psalm 46 – “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (v.10).
Psalm 131, while only three verses in length, expresses David’s walk with God, in which he has complete contentment because of a life fully submitted to, and trusting in, God – “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
After sitting quietly and meditating on those verses, I decided to finish painting, excited to see what my brush strokes would communicate. This time, instead of classical music, I listened to worship music. The next brush strokes, using darker colors, and while still very abstract, began to have some patterns. The paint lines flowed alongside one another. The chaos was turning to calm. Disorder was moving toward order.
There is an old hymn that begins like this – “When peace, like a river, attends all my way, when sorrows like sea-billows roll, whatever my path, you have taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’” (Lyrics by Horatio G. Spafford)
There are many benefits of regularly unplugging from the chaotic world in which we live. Our physical health and spiritual health are just two of the benefits.
So, I ask… Are you purposefully carving out time and space on a daily basis to be quiet and still with God? In doing so, you too will be able to say it is well with my soul.
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