Be Still and Know

How I missed Jesus' Bread Crumb Trail

Image created by Chris Craft

When you’ve known God for as long as I have, your heart is always attuned to His voice—you recognize His promptings, listen for direction and expectantly wait for answers to prayer.

In Christian circles, this skill is called discernment.

Over the years, I thought I’d become pretty adept at capturing the Lord’s whispers, and constantly feeling the soft vibration of His footfalls just ahead of me.

I always knew exactly where I stood with God and was confident that I was walking the path He had set before me.

Yet, eighteen months ago, I completely missed a literal bread crumb trail Jesus had left for me.

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For weeks, the Lord put the same scripture in my path, over and over again.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Isaiah 46:10

I kept seeing it on the products I stocked while working in my church bookstore— on journals, mugs, wall art and other gift items.

Annoyed by the repetition, I began questioning my ordering habits.

Why was I buying so many products with the same scripture?

I needed to focus more on what I was doing—maybe get more sleep.

One afternoon, I felt a queasy twinge in my spiritual “spidey sense” when I opened a shipment of checkbook covers and, discovered that the same scripture-”Be still and know that I am God,” was printed on each and every one.

Disgusted with myself, I shook my head and muttered, “Eight different designs with the same scripture. Geez.”

“Lord, are you trying to tell me something?” I asked.

Later that same week, I couldn’t help but notice a Herculean gentleman shopping in the store. His billboard-sized back had the number 46, silkscreened in yellow against his green football jersey.

I approached him, and asked, “Sir, is there anything I can help you find?”

I nearly fainted when he turned around and the front of his jersey screamed the words “BE STILL.”

At that point, I was a little frightened.

“Lord, are you talking to me?” I asked again.

I’m pretty sure I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Duh!”

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Only two weeks later, the church laid off my husband, cut the store’s operating hours and reduced my hours from 40 to 24.

This was the event the Lord had been preparing me for.

My immediate question for God was “Why?”

What I should have been asking was “How did I miss all of those clues, Lord?”

Now, after much prayer and reflection, I can admit that the reasons for my spiritual blindness and lack of discernment were simply pride and distraction.

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For 25 years, I was certain that I was living in the center of God’s will.

I was sure of it and, what’s more I was proud of it.

Time and time again, I told my friends and coworkers that I was exactly where the Lord wanted me to be.

• My husband and I were serving God.

• We were putting His word into the hands of others.

• We were sacrificing our lives to equip the saints.

In my finite mind I envisioned the two of us forever working 10-hour days in the bookstore until at last, we’d simply drop dead, side-by-side, hands clasped beneath the soft light of the Bible display.

But God had other plans.

We had dedicated our lives to making both the store and the cafe the best they could possibly be.

• I created gorgeous displays.

• My husband haggled with sales reps to get the biggest discounts possible.

• We stewarded the church’s money wisely.

• We taught our staff to go the extra mile to get customers the study materials they needed. After all, we were helping people grow closer to the Lord.

• The deepest desire of our hearts was to work those jobs until Jesus came back for us.

But God had better plans.

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We were so distracted by the busyness of serving the Lord, that we missed His escalating whispers of “Be still.”

To be clear, even if I had recognized the bread crumb trail Jesus left me, the our dream jobs still would have ended.

Maybe it would have been a little less painful, or maybe we’d have been a little less lost at first; I don’t know.

When my kids were little, I did everything within my power to shield them from pain.

If the pediatrician was immunizing them, I pulled them onto my lap covered their eyes and held them close.

It still hurt.

But they felt my presence, sensed my love and knew if I was allowing their pain, it must be right.

It must mean that it was for their good.

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God loves my husband and I infinitely more than I love my kids.

He was there when the pain hit us that day—holding us close and wiping our tears, yet still allowing the hurt.

Because it was for our good.

It was part of His better plan for us.

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Lord, please help each of us to always be attuned to your voice—to hear your wise promptings, listen for your masterful instruction, to live expectantly, waiting for answers to prayer.

Beyond all of these things, Jesus, give us the discernment to know when to unbusy ourselves and turn our eyes upon You.

Help us Lord, to be still, and know that You are God.