A Quiet Heart

The entire following entry is taken from the book Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot.  I first read it when my heart desperately needed to be quieted, and I’ve gone back and re-read it several times.  To try to say any better what she has already said so well would be an exercise in futility, so I’ll leave it alone. I hope it encourages you…

Jesus slept on a pillow in the midst of a raging storm. How could He?  The terrified disciples, sure that the next wave would send them straight to the bottom, shook Him awake with rebuke. How could He be so careless of their fate?
He could because He slept in the calm assurance that His Father was in control. His was a quiet heart. We see Him move serenely through all the events of His life — when He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He knew that He would suffer many things and be killed in Jerusalem, He never deviated from His course. He had set His face like flint. He sat at supper with one who would deny Him and another who would betray Him, yet He was able to eat with them, willing even to wash their feet. Jesus in the unbroken intimacy of His Father’s love, kept a quiet heart.
None of us possesses a heart so perfectly at rest, for none lives in such divine unity, but we can learn a little more each day of what Jesus knew…Jesus, because His will was one with His Father’s, could be free from care. He had the blessed assurance of knowing that His Father would do the caring, would be attentive to His Son’s need….He knew when to take action and when to leave things to His Father. He taught us to work and watch but never to worry, to do gladly whatever we are given to do, and to leave all else with God.
Purity of heart…is to will one thing. The Son willed only one thing: the will of His Father….One whose aim is as pure as that can have a completely quiet heart, knowing what the psalmist knew, “Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup, and have made my lot secure.” (Ps. 16:5)…Can we say that there are things which happen to us which do not belong to our lovingly assigned “portion”? Are some things, then, out of the control of the Almighty?
Every assignment is measured and controlled for my eternal good. As I accept the given portion other options are cancelled. Decisions become much easier, directions clearer, and hence my heart becomes inexpressibly quieter.
…
A quiet heart is content with what God gives. It is enough. All is grace…
…all is under my Father’s control: yes, recalcitrant computers, faulty transmissions, drawbridges which happen to be up when one is in a hurry. My portion. My cup. My lot is secure. my heart can be at peace. My Father is in charge. How simple!
My assignment entails my willing acceptance of my portion–in matters far beyond comparison with the trivialities just mentioned, such as the death of a precious baby… We can only know that Eternal Love is wiser than we, and we bow in adoration of that loving wisdom.
Response is what matters. (Remember the Israelites…all experienced the same, But God was not pleased with most of them. Their response was all wrong.)  The same almighty God apportioned their experience. All events serve His will. Some responded in faith. Most did not.
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Cor 10:13)
Think of that promise and keep a quiet heart! Our enemy delights in disquieting us. Our Savior and Helper delights in quieting us. “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” is His promise. (Is. 66:13)  The choice is ours. It depends on our willingness to see everything in God, receive all from His hand, accept with gratitude just the portion and the cup He offers. Shall I charge Him with a mistake in His measurements or with misjudging the sphere in which I can best learn to trust Him?  Has He misplaced me?  Is He ignorant of things or people which, in my view, hinder my doing His will?
God came down and lived in this same world as a man. He showed us how to live in this world, subject to its vicissitudes and necessities, that we might be changed — not into an angel or storybook princess, not wafted into another world, but changed into saints in this world. The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

"Let it Grow"

I took my boys to see The Lorax last week. There’s an old-timey theatre in Kannapolis that we like to go to. I appreciate the history of the building, but I appreciate their low ticket prices even more! (It only cost $10 for all three of us!) The Lorax is based on a book by Dr. Seuss with the same name, and the plot is basically about a world where all of the trees have been cut down to make way for progress. There is a character, however, who is in possession of the very last tree seed – and he entrusts it to a little boy who is determined to plant it in the middle of town so everyone can see it. Of course, there is a “villain” who is making money by selling clean air and stands to lose everything if there are trees producing clean air for free.  The climax of the movie takes place in the center of town as he and the boy face off with everyone watching to determine the fate of this seed…and a musical number begins called “Let it Grow.”  It includes various townspeople singing about why they should let it grow – from 3 year old Marie to Granny Norma to Ben and Rose whose “son Wesley kinda glows.” The song stuck with us because there’s a verse where the villain, Mr. O’Hare sings, but changes the words to “Let it die.” My boys thought that was hilarious, you-tubed the video, and recorded it to my phone as a ringtone! There was one phrase, however, from the song that jumped out at me, and I have been thinking about it all week long. 

Disclaimer: If at this point you are tempted to stop reading because you think this will be the rantings of a crazy tree-hugger or a post about saving trees, let me reassure you that I do have a spiritual thought unrelated to environmentalism!

The phrase is this, “Let it grow, let it grow, you can’t reap what you don’t sow…”  What caught my attention is that these are Bible words…well, almost. Let me put it in context: The Bible says that whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.  If we sow to the flesh, we reap corruption. The admonition is to sow to the spirit. (see Galatians 6:7,8) I have heard my fair share of sermons and messages and devotionals about sowing and reaping, but I’ve never heard it reworded in the negative. Yes, it is true that you reap what you sow, but it is also true that you CAN’T reap what you DON’T sow. (This is bringing back memories of Mrs. Jone’s geometry class and rules about p’s and q’s and whether or not p implies q… but that’s beside the point. )   Like I said, this phrase has been stuck in my head this week, and ironically, the Holy Spirit has used it to really make a point to me about growing in Christ.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I look at the fruits of the spirit – or even spiritual qualities I see in the lives of others – and I really wish those fruits were more evident in my life. Maybe it’s a closer intimacy with Christ, a better prayer life, a more disciplined quiet time…sometimes it’s just something as “simple” as love, joy and peace. The thought struck me last week, if those are the fruits I want to “reap,” what am I doing to cultivate those in my life?  This reminded me also of the parable of the sower and the different kinds of soil.  Usually when we hear messages about this, we picture four different kinds of people and whether or not they receive God’s Word leading to salvation, but the truth is, sometimes my heart is all of those types of soil at one time or another.   I’ll be honest, Sunday morning during church, I struggled with having thorns and weeds in my soil. The message was good, but I was having so much trouble concentrating because of all of the other thoughts that kept entering my heart and competing for my attention!  Sometimes I’ve hardened my heart in an area, and until I’m broken, any messages or passages of Scripture about that area fall on deaf ears. There have been times when I have been so “dry” spiritually that things just kind of stay on the surface – like the stony ground – the Word of God didn’t even get a chance to really take root and ends up withering before it can produce any fruit in my life.  What am I doing to make sure that seeds can take root in good soil and grow and produce fruit in my life? I can’t reap what I don’t sow. What kinds of seeds am I sowing in my life? The Word of God? Worldly thoughts and philosophies? My own selfish desires? Am I letting anything else take root in my heart?  What am I doing to keep the soil prepared and fertile?  There’s a verse in Psalms that has always kind of fascinated me. Psalm 86:11 says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your  truth; Unite my heart to fear your name.”  The idea of uniting something we think of as being singular in nature is what is so remarkable to me, but David is right on. My heart is so divided sometimes. God, take this mess of soil that is my heart – the stony areas, the hard areas, the weedy areas – and unite it all. Make it all fertile ground that is capable of producing fruit. Plant those seeds in my life and help me to nurture them so that they can grow.

"The Servant Song"

I found a new hymn today, and I LOVE it! I just had to share it with you…

Background information:  Our regular pianist is going to be out of town on March 25th…and so is the organist…which means the back-up pianist needs to play the organ…which leaves me at the piano. Yes, I AM the bottom of the barrel! J That is fine with me – I’m much more comfortable in the orchestra than on the piano bench.  Yesterday, the interim music director asked if I would consider playing the piano that day for the service. After a small panic attack, and an initial, “Can’t you used canned music that day?” I felt a small bit of conviction that serving the Lord isn’t about being the best or having the most ability; it’s about being willing to be used. I apologized to the director, and told him I would do it…

Okay, now that  my heart’s in the right place, what about the songs? I haven’t been practicing on a regular basis, so the last time I was playing hymns regularly for people to sing along was when I played for Christian school chapel. That was almost 6 years ago!  At this point, anything really complicated or fast is way outside my comfort zone.  The music director told me to go through the hymnal and see what I felt comfortable playing . I did that last night. I skipped the sections of Christmas songs, Resurrection songs, Lord’s Supper songs, Patriotic songs, etc. and came up with a list of about 30 or so hymns and choruses that I could sit down and play now if I had to.  The church secretary and I crossed out any that had been done recently, and this knocked a few off the list. Then I found out what the message was going to be about that day – we’re going through 1 John, and the message at this point is going to be from chapter 3 about hating/loving one another.  That complicates things a wee bit… because most songs are about our love for God or His love for us and not so much about our love for each other…There are a few, but really, you can’t sing “We Are One in the Bond of Love” for an entire service. So back, to the hymnal I went, and I stumbled across a song I had never heard of before and I almost skipped over it because the title was “The Servant Song.” But it is written in fairly easy timing with an easy key signature, so I thought I’d play through it… Tadaaa! It turns out it’s a melody I love.  It’s also the melody for “Come, All Christians, Be Committed” and some of the more recent versions of “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy”  (It’s an old Shaker melody called Beech Spring used in Ken Burns Lewis and Clark documentary if you want to youtube it. J)

 But you HAVE to read the words! I can’t believe we don’t sing this song!

The Servant Song

We are trav’lers on a journey, fellow pilgrims on the road;

We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you in the night-time of your fear;

I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.

Sister, let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you;

Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.

Brother, let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you;

Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.

I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh, I’ll laugh with you;

I will share your joy and sorrow, til we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven, We shall find such harmony,

Born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.

What a beautiful words and so meaningful to me!  A few weeks ago in my small group Bible study, I shared my “story” – a general overview of my life and testimony – and I made a comment that when I first came to the church that I am in now, I needed a sort of “spiritual rehab.” They all laughed over that comment, but it is so true. I couldn’t think of another way to say what I meant.  Like someone who has been in a traumatic accident and has been injured severely, spiritually, I needed people to come alongside me and teach me how to “walk” again. I look back now, and am so thankful for those “servants” who held their hand out to me, spoke the peace I longed to hear, for the ones who shared my sorrow, and helped me bear a load that I felt was impossible. I marvel now at their patience, because I am sure it felt quite unrewarding to them at the time, and yet they persisted. They truly have been “as Christ” to me.  I’m a little stronger now…and I want to be that person for others. I want to be the servant now. I know what a difference it made for me, and I want to make that difference in someone else’s life. 

I don’t know that we’ll sing this song on the Sunday that I play – it’s usually not a good idea to spring unfamiliar hymns on the congregation on a Sunday morning – especially when you’re being led by an interim director, a back-up organist, and a bottom-of-the-barrel pianist!  But it’s okay if we don’t sing it that day. I found it…and now you’ve read it too…and maybe soon we’ll learn it and start singing it…