Visionaries can be a bit of a pain, they get people all stirred up and tend to disrupt the status quo. Moses in the Old Testament was one such, he got the people fired up with thoughts of freedom and he even managed (eventually) to persuade Pharaoh the King of Egypt to release the Israelites from bondage. Were they happy about this? In a word no; well perhaps they were at first but when Pharaoh changed his mind and sent the army after them they soon changed their tune. Reading the story in Exodus chapter fourteen one gets the impression, reading between the lines, that Moses got a bit stressed to put it mildly. Faced with opposition the Israelites soon hankered after the old ways, it might have meant slavery which wasn’t ideal but at least it was familiar. Up went the cry, “What have you (Moses) done? ... Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians. For it would be better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14)
Moses often seems to find himself caught between the demands of the people and the demands of God; he ends up as a kind of intermediary. Faced with this clamour to give up before it’s too late he tells them (and I detect perhaps a note of panic in his voice), “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today...the Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.” In the next verse God seems to rather contradict this – “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to me? Tell the people to go forward.” How on earth, one might ask, can a person be still and go forward at the same time?
Like many Old Testament stories this particular one catches beautifully one of the major dilemmas of being human. When confronted by the dangers and challenges of life it is easy to respond in one of two ways depending on whether or not you are by nature an introvert or an extrovert. The introvert will tend to go inside themselves, retreat and lick their wounds whilst the extrovert will tend to rush headlong at the problem without too much reflection; in other words become somewhat manic. Most of us are a strange mixture of these two tendencies rather than being merely one or the other, so what might this ancient story tell us about how we could perhaps learn to live and what has the holiday period (July/August) got to do with it?
Well being still can mean being frozen to the spot with fear in the face of an external danger but it can also be a state of mind which is compatible with creative action or moving forward. States of mind can be achieved with practice and time. If you sought help with your life problems from a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist they would seek to teach you how to think differently about yourself and your circumstances. St Paul encourages something similar when he writes to the Philippians and says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus...” (Philippians 2: 5). St Paul is encouraging the church members at Philippi to adapt their thinking about themselves in the light of Christ.
Now I am not suggesting that you all go off to seek therapy, Cognitive or otherwise, but I am suggesting that you utilise your faith to still your mind and emotions. You were made by God as part of his continuing creation and you were made to be unique. You were redeemed from your sins by Christ and are loved by God more than you can ever imagine; being mindful of this can affect you profoundly. During your holidays take time to consider this. Also take time to recognise the beauty of nature and of art. If you do you will be amazed how life somehow gets into proportion, you realise what is important, you cease to be so omnipotent and self important, you learn how to play once again. Achieving this kind of stillness enables you to move forward avoiding the twin enemies of, withdrawal or manic activity.
Happy holidays – Fr Mick