Week 4 | Surrender: From Anger to Stillness

When our bodies and minds perceive danger or instability, we go into protection mode. Our muscles tense, our heart rate goes up, and our minds move into survival mode. Our vision narrows as does our hearing. We see our options as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. 

With the loss of perceived control, we want to fight (classic expressions of anger), flee (withdrawal) or freeze (turning inward and shutting down). Fawning occurs when we seek to appease or please others to avoid harm. We may have experienced one or all these reactions, and we may feel helpless even if we are aware. 

When we experience chaos and frustration, it can be difficult to move toward God in prayer. Jesus spoke to His disciples on the night of His betrayal, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41). For us as well, we may have a willing heart/spirit, but our bodies and minds do not want to cooperate. Indeed, we may feel powerless to stop the train of temptation while it is moving down the track.

Jesus invites us to watch and pray. The word watch, in this context, means to stay awake. Our bodies can fall asleep both literally and figuratively as we go to our usual habits and patterns of reacting to the world around us. When we are agitated, our bodies need to return to a place of stability so that we can stay awake and pray.

Learning stillness is vital for this contemplative rhythm of surrender.

Psalm 46 paints a compelling picture of perceived chaos and danger,

Do you feel the intensity with which the psalmist wrote these words? It must have felt like the world was falling apart. In addition, we read the words, “The nations rage; the kingdoms totter” (v 6a). Everything is seemingly out of control. The response to all of this is that God is “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (v 1). The last phrase could be translated as “abundantly present and a help in trouble.” 

These are stunning words and excellent theology. The challenge is that we may have all the right theology, but our body does not believe it. The following words (v 10) are intended to go beyond our minds to a place of dismantling our habits and patterns of reaction. God spoke amid of the chaos with these beautiful words,

Be still, and know that I am God.

The invitation to be still is offered that we might know, or experience, God as our refuge and strength. So, how do we engage stillness? Primarily, it has to do with our bodies. 

Current neuroscience research has demonstrated that what is happening in our body (heart rate, gut feelings, respiratory rate, etc) is communicated to our brain faster than we can form thoughts. In addition, there are more sensory fibers going to the brain from the body than the other way around. What this means is that as we live contemplatively in the gaze of God starts, we start paying attention to what is going on our body. Of course, God created our bodies to recognize helpful and necessary signals when there is real danger, but often the dangers and chaos we feel are more perceived.

In general, stillness invites a slowing down to give space for intentional responses rather than automatic reactions. So, practices like sabbath, unplugging, fasting, and simplifying can help our souls slow down enough to keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

More specifically, in a contemplative practice of stillness, we learn to breathe deeply and slowly as we listen to our body. We find a quiet space where we can notice everything from head to toe and surrender and entrusting ourselves to God. As we sit and observe our body beginning to relax into trust, we then notice what we are trying to control and release that as well. These simple actions open our bodies to surrender.

Take a few moments to engage in this practice. Sit in a quiet space with palms up on your lap. Slowly breathe in and out – counting to four and pausing between the inhale and exhale with a count to four. Scan you body and pray through what you notice. Next, name what you are trying to control. No judgment or analysis. Simply notice. Slowly pray the prayer below. Repeat it several times. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to be still and know. Help me to be still. Help me to be. I release the outcomes. I trust in what You will unfold in my life. Amen.