When stillness rules nature, when stillness rules fear. When stillness speaks peace, when Love speaks for us to hear.
The Broom Tree
“When he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”
Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.” - 1 Kings 19:3-8.
This is Elijah, the great prophet, driven into the wilderness by fear. His fear was great enough that he walked a full day’s journey to escape it. When his own heart overcame him, he wanted to run away from himself…not knowing that in running from himself…he would end up finding home.
The Rotem bush, the broom tree, the first stop on his journey. The place where he empties himself, admits defeat, and lets his rawness cry out to his Home. Elijah needed to unload his fear, unyoke his zeal, and rest his soul somewhere.
A beautiful irony: his soul found nourishment in a thing that had learned to survive without water, and rest in a thing that had learned, in the wilderness, to depend wholly on God.
Elijah saw the tree, and how it stood firm in drought, in heat, in storm, and in wind. A broom tree, a tree of the wilderness, with immensely deep roots that refuse to die. Instead they thrive, reaching for the water beneath the surface. A tree that did not let the environment sweep her away but dug her roots down to stay firm in the ground.
Learn from the tree, Elijah. Grow your roots deep. Look for the hidden core within you.
And when he saw the tree take on the weather and the wilderness, he rose and walked for forty days and forty nights.
Fear made Elijah take only a day’s journey to the wilderness, but a still, silent tree helped him walk forty days to God’s mountain.
A Cave in Horeb
“And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him,“What are you doing here, Elijah?” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake,but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”” - 1 Kings 19:9-13.
Forty days. What did you contemplate for forty days, Elijah? Were you still thinking of that tree and how it weathered the rough conditions? Were you reminiscing over the fear you felt and how it made you run?
Elijah walks for forty days and forty nights. Like the tree, he goes deeper into the mountain, not just onto its top but into a cave, where he tries to find shelter for his soul. For even mountains hold hidden shelters within them. It was not only a place Elijah had to climb, but a place he had to enter.
And there, he rested. Rest always precedes God’s speech to our ears. He is there already, even before He speaks. His utterance is heard in our rest, and it does not end.
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" A question that echoes beyond Elijah’s heart, that tugs on the strings of the soul. A tune in the depths of Elijah’s being that fear has, for a time, out-sung. And Elijah, like an infant, cries to his parent about his ailment. He complains, tells of his loneliness, pours out his fears, and comes to the end of himself.
Then God, instead of singing louder, chooses to show Elijah that His answer is quieter than his fear. He decides to sing Elijah the original song. He lets all the other voices, the wind, the earthquake, the fire, sing one last time before the eternal song makes its gentle entrance. A song so gentle in its reverence that Elijah shields his face, a song that revealed his first Love. That is when he realises: God does not compete with our inner chaos by being louder than it. He meets chaos with His gentle character.
When fear roars, God whispers…
When fear rushes, God waits…
When fear exhausts, God sustains…
When fear demands flee, God asks us to rest…
God does not answer Elijah straight away when he brings his problem. He answers first by revealing His character. Elijah’s problem does not change, but in the process he comes to know God. The aim of our struggle is never to get the answer, but to get to know the ultimate Answer. C.S. Lewis puts it beautifully:
“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces.
Sometimes God leads us into rest, not so He can finally give us the answer we wanted, but so we can discover that His presence runs deeper than the answer we were asking for.
Raging Waves
Fast forward nine centuries. A group of mighty men cry out to their sleeping Master in the midst of a raging sea.
“Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,“Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”- Mark 4:36-40.
Again, the disciples, at the point of fear, run to the stern of the boat, their version of the wilderness. They turn inward and seek stillness in the storm. Stillness rises and walks to the front, makes His appearance, and utters peace. He calls out to the depths of the sea. It was not that the waves feared Him. They only needed to be reminded of their essence. They are used to raging and crashing, and they had forgotten that in their depths lie hidden beds of still sea.
“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.” -Psalm 42:7
Tell us, wild waves, how did His voice command calmness in you? Is it easy for you to submit to Him and recognise the eternity in His sound?
When God speaks, He does not speak to a single moment in time, He speaks peace forever. He commands the waves and the hearts to rest in His voice. “Your voice my Beloved, it calls gently to our souls and rebukes the fears and turmoil away. It calls the soul back home, back to the garden where it belongs, Your garden of peace.”
“God is not waiting at the finish line. He comes towards us in the middle of the mess, often quietly,often through ordinary people, often through memories we tried to bury, often through a silence that first feels like absence and later like Someone.”Father Michael P. Sorial, Sophia’s Way
So let the fears of Elijah and the disciples speak, and tell you how they fled at the sound of His gentle voice. Learn from the tree, the cave, and the wave, and how they act in His presence. They go beyond obedience. They live peace out.
In the case of Elijah, He showed him a tree with deep, committed roots. He showed him that creation remains rooted in Him even when, on the surface, it is exposed to every element of the world. He takes him inward, into a cave in the mountain, shows him the elements all around him, and then reveals the Ultimate Root in his innermost part.
In the case of the disciples, God does not speak to them until He quiets the wild waves. He commands, and nature surrenders.
He says, “How are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” We who sometimes think our waves are wilder and more violent than the waves of the sea, do we not have Him in the stern of our soul as well? Should we not surrender at once to His never-quiet voice?
You see, He is always there. He is in the little voice. He is in the stern of the boat. He shows us that even in the wilderness there are deep roots, and beneath the wild waves there is deep stillness.
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One of His Poems
