April 1: On Holy Stillness
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♫ Music:
Day 36- Wednesday, April 1
Rung #27: ON HOLY STILLNESS
Scriptures: Psalm 131:1-2; Isaiah 30:15; Psalm 46:10
Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child [resting] with his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me [composed and freed from discontent]. For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said this, “In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and confident trust is your strength.” “Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”
Poetry:
The Hawk
by Franz Wright
Maybe in a million years
a better form of human
being will come, happier
and more intelligent. A few already
have infiltrated this world and lived
to very much regret it,
I suppose.
Me,
I'd prefer to have come
in the form of that hawk, floating over
the mirroring fire
of Clearlake's
hill, my gold
skull filled with nothing
but God's will
the whole day through, instead
of these glinting voices incessantly
unerringly guiding me
to pursue
what makes me sick, and not
what makes me glad. And yet
I am changing: this three-pound lump
of sentient meat electrified
by hope and terror has learned to hear
His silence like the sun,
and sought to change!
And friends
on earth at the same time
as me, listen: from the sound of those crickets
last night, Rene Char said
prenatal life
must have been sweet -
each voice perhaps also a star
in that night
from which
this time
we won't be
interrupted anymore - but
fellow monsters while we are still here, for one minute, think
about this: there is someone right now who is looking
to you, not Him, for whatever
love still exists.
ON HOLY STILLNESS
Less than a week into sheltering in place, I saw this social media post: “The only thing this self isolation has done is made me realize how unbearable I am.” That feels about right to me. We are growing weary of ourselves. We feel there’s no escape right now from the unnerving isolation and seemingly forced introspection.
Franz Wright’s poem for today captures this condition well: “Maybe in a million years/ a better form of human/ being will come, …/ instead/ of these glinting voices incessantly/ unerringly guiding me/ to pursue/ what makes me sick, and not/ what makes me glad.” Wright names so well the nagging sense of over-exposure to self. “His best forms of originality,” says critic Helen Vendler, are, “deftness in patterning, startling metaphors, starkness of speech, compression of both pain and joy, and a stoic self-possession with the agonies and penalties of existence.” Yes, that’s it. “Stoic self-possession.” “Agonies and penalties of existence.”
Such feelings often operate undetected in us. It drives our most ridiculous moments of unchecked rage. It fuels the mundane frustrations that occupy us so easily. We are only aware after the fact - in the quiet deliberation of “Why in the world did I say that?” or “Why did that bother me so much?” These distractions are not the problem. We are the problem. We are not at peace - with ourselves or with God.
If that’s at all how you feel, hear God’s word for you: “In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and confident trust is your strength.” He is gentle and kind - the motherly presence of Psalm 131 ready to absorb our fitful irritations and bitterness. If we are exasperated with ourselves, we need to remember that God is not. God never tires or wishes to be rid of us. We may have worn out all patience with ourselves, but Christ still says, “Come to me.” He longs to offer us his reassuring peace, his restful calm, and his quiet and confident trust.
Cherith Lundin’s paintings, therefore, seem so perfectly paired for such examination. These four paintings come from a series of work entitled “How the Light Gets In.” Perhaps that title evokes for us the famous line from Leonard Cohen: “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” In their unadorned tranquility, her pictures document moments of quiet from her own life, episodes of stillness surrendered to the wonder of how light plays upon an interior wall or invites her gaze outward in discovery of a richly lit landscape. Each one is a holy, unrepeatable, but immensely graced moment for anamnesis.
Practicing Christ’s peace is far from selfish or impractical. Recall the final words of Wright’s verse: “but/ fellow monsters while we are still here, for one minute, think/ about this: there is someone right now who is looking/ to you, not Him, for whatever/ love still exists.” Whatever this global crisis means for us - and we will likely not know for years to come, it demands, at the very least, that we “be still and know.” That is hard but vital work right now. The final refrain of All Sons and Daughters’ “Rest in You” reminds us where we can find our comfort, “You cannot change, yet you change everything.”
We change. We always change. Indeed, we must change, but our changes can be, again a form of turning back to God, who cannot change. For our peace, he remains at peace. We can rest because Christ is resting still.
Prayer:
Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, you alone are God.
Remove from me the pride of my heart and the pride of my eyes.
Relieve me of the worry of great matters, things that are too difficult for me.
Calm and quiet my soul; let me rest on you like a child resting with her mother.
Grant me patience as you strengthen me in quietness and confident trust.
Let me rest in knowing that you are Lord of all and you will be honored in the earth.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray.
Amen.
Dr. Taylor Worley
Associate Professor of Faith and Culture
Associate Vice President of Spiritual Life and University Ministries
Trinity International University
Deerfield, Illinois
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab
About the Art: (3 images)
From the Series How the Light Gets In
Cherith Lundin
A Pocket of Time
2018
Oil on canvas
4 paintings, 48” x 36" each
A View from Here (after Friedrich)
2018
Oil on canvas
2 paintings, 48” x 36" each
And Then Time Moved On
2017
Oil on canvas
48” x 72"
These paintings belong to a series titled “How the Light Gets In.” The first three pairs depict windows looking out to the fresh green of the natural world obscured by the glare of the bright light on the panes of glass. Their titles, A Pocket in Time and A View from Here, imply a liminal space one can enter in stillness and solitude that is both transitional and transformative. With the last painting title, And Then Time Moved On, our view turns inward to see the light that makes its way from an unseen window into the room through partly drawn blinds. Its gentle touch reaches a wall with a stretched canvas leaning against it facing backwards, as if to dissolve the watery drips of paint that mar its surface like tears waiting to be acknowledged. “These paintings,” says the artist, “are of the everyday spaces I work in, live in, or have travelled through. Nothing in them is particularly noteworthy but for a slant of light that catches the eye, a tree too abundant to take in fully, a view that repeats itself to new effect. And so, the work is really about looking - about the embodied, shifting nature of perception. The framework of the window both limits and expands the view, as light momentarily dissolves the boundaries between intimacy and distance.”
About the Artist:
Cherith Lundin works across a variety of media, exploring ephemeral perceptions of light and space within every day architecture. In her work, windows and walls become framing devices suggesting presence and absence, limitation, and possibility. By using one material to suggest another, such as repeating a line to alter our perception of space or layering spray paint to suggest light, the work encourages an increased awareness of our perceptions and surroundings. Lundin grew up in Germany and received an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, with recent exhibitions at Harper College, IL; Waiting Room Gallery, MN; South Bend Museum of Art, IN; Redux Contemporary Art, SC; and Kunsthaus Nürnberg, Germany. She has received numerous grants for her work, including from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She is Associate Professor of Art at Wheaton College, where she teaches painting, drawing, and printmaking.
https://cherithlundin.com/
About the Music:
“Rest In You” from the album Poets and Saints
The Lyrics:
Who is Lord, but our Lord
Who is God, only God
You are the highest
You are most good
Matchless is Your love
Our praise will rise above
Your peace like a river
Floods over us
Our hearts are restless
Until they find rest in You
Our hearts are restless
Until they find rest in You
This is where my hope lies
This is where my soul sighs
I will always find my rest in You
So full of mercy
Beauty and mystery
You are most hidden
But always with us
Our hearts are restless
Until they find rest in You
Our hearts are restless
Until they find rest in You
This is where my hope lies
This is where my soul sighs
I will always find my rest in You
You cannot change
Yet You change everything
About the Composers/Lyricists:
Leslie Jordan, David Leonard and Cara Fox
Leslie Jordan is a Tennessee native, worship leader, writer and songwriter. Leslie served on staff at Journey Church for ten years as a worship leader and, alongside David Leonard, formed the band All Sons & Daughters. From 2010-2018, All Sons & Daughters released one live album, five studio albums and one compilation. Their final release as a band, Poets & Saints was Grammy Nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Album of 2016. Leslie currently serves as a staff-writer on Integrity Music Publishing. She spends most of her days co-writing with artists around the Nashville area. Leslie is passionate about social issues and is actively involved in her community as well as several local and global non-profit organizations. Three years ago, Leslie was given a vision to provide a safe place for writers & songwriters to find their original voice, which led to the development of a songwriting community and Nashville-based 501-C3 Non-Profit, The Fold. The Fold is the perfect marriage of her two passions: music and non-profit.
https://www.weareworship.com/us/worship-leaders-2/leslie-jordan/
Arkansas native and Tennessee resident David Leonard has been playing, singing, writing and recording music since college when he and friends formed the band Jackson Waters. He later performed with NEEDTOBREATHE before a season of recording as one-half of the critically-acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-nominated duo All Sons & Daughters. David is a Dove Award-winning producer (Confio/Jaci Velasquez) and creative partner in The Creak Music (Ben & Noelle Kilgore, JJ Heller, Brandon Heath, All Sons & Daughters) located in downtown Franklin. He is also a Dove and Covenant Award-nominated songwriter whose credits include “Great Are You Lord,” “Christ Be All Around,” “All The Poor and Powerless” and “God Who Moves The Mountains.” David released his first solo album, The Wait, in March of 2019 and later in the year released a live recording of the album entitled The Wait: Silence The Noise.
https://www.integritymusic.com/artists/david-leonard
https://www.davidleonardmusic.com/
Cara Fox is a cellist, pianist and arranger/composer hailing from Kansas City, MO. She has lived in Nashville, TN, since 2007 and works as a touring and session musician with a passion for bringing visions and dreams of artists to life through her instrument. She has toured with various artists such as Sara Bareilles, Gungor, All Sons and Daughters and Jars of Clay.
About the Performers:
All Sons & Daughters is an American Christian worship music duo, who perform in the styles of acoustic and folk music. The group's leads are Leslie Anne Jordan on vocals and guitar and David Alan Leonard on vocals and piano. They are both worship leaders at Journey Church in Franklin, Tennessee. The musicians are quoted as saying “Our main goal is to create this space where people can come and engage with God, and we kind of get out of the way...we’re not trying to sway emotions, but really trying to tell a story, and move people through a progression from brokenness into grace, to finding freedom. We believe God is transcendent in His nature, so He takes something that is ancient and plants it in the present to wake us up.”
https://www.allsonsanddaughters.com/
About the Poet:
Franz Wright (1953–2015) was an American poet. He and his father James Wright are the only parent/child pair to have won the Pulitzer Prize in the same category. He earned his BA from Oberlin College in 1977. In his precisely crafted, lyrical poems, Wright addresses the themes of isolation, illness, spirituality, and gratitude. Critic Helen Vendler wrote in the New York Review of Books, “Wright's scale of experience ...runs from the homicidal to the ecstatic....His best forms of originality: deftness in patterning, startling metaphors, starkness of speech, compression of both pain and joy, and a stoic self-possession with the agonies and penalties of existence.” Wright received a Whiting Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He taught at Emerson College and other universities, worked in mental health clinics, and volunteered his time at a center for grieving children.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/franz-wright
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Wright
About the Devotion Writer:
Dr. Taylor Worley
Associate Professor of Faith and Culture
Associate Vice President of Spiritual Life and University Ministries
Trinity International University
Deerfield, Illinois
Taylor Worley serves as Associate Vice President of Spiritual Life and University Ministries as well as Associate Professor of Faith and Culture at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. He completed a Ph.D. in the areas of contemporary art and theological aesthetics at the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Taylor is married to Anna, and they have four children: Elizabeth, Quinn, Graham, and Lillian.