stop.

Stop. Collaborate and listen.
(Ice is back with a brand new invention?)

I wonder if Vanilla Ice had Psalm 46 on the brain when he wrote that.
Ok. Probably not.

In Psalm 46 God sort of re-assures us that He’s got it all in control. I LOVE it. The seas are raging, mountains quaking, kingdoms crumbling, wars raging. And in verse 10 He’s all “don’t worry, I got this.”

But not only does He “have this” but he tells us to just STOP.

Chuck Swindoll says this about this Psalm:
“One Hebrew term attracts me to this Psalm; a very small imperative, a terse command. Preceded by images of chaos- mountains sliding into the ocean cites under attack, breaking bows, and burning chariots – comes the absurd command, “Cease!” Raphah is the Hebrew term. It could be rendered: Relax. Be quiet. Quit. Do Nothing. When danger threatens someone, we might naturally panic as we shout, “Run!” “Duck!” or “Get out!” But God says “Cease.” Imagine someone calling into a burning building, “Do Nothing!””

I think this is hard for us, it is for me anyway. In the midst of the storm and the chaos to simply stop and submit to the one who knows how it is all going to end up. And I don’t even think it necessarily needs to be a storm in the sense of getting slammed with a bunch of negative things, they can be good things. Often I find myself torn in a gazillion directions getting bombarded by loads of good things wondering which one I should tackle first, spreading myself too thin. Often I put myself in the place of God thinking I need to do some amazing thing in order for this all to work out right. But the truth is I don’t. Like I’m really gonna save the world. I need to stop, “cease striving,” and trust all things happen in His time.

The Message version says it this way: “Step out of traffic! Take a long, loving look at Me, your High God, above politics, above everything.”

In the midst of it all he doesn’t command us to do anything, He insists us to step back and watch him in all his majesty work it together for his glory.

Be still and know that I am God.

mojo.

I had this dream recently that involved a few friends, me getting married, and a bunch of other random events at the end of which we ended up giving a friend the nickname Mojo. The next morning I woke up thinking back over this and laughed at the silliness of the dream and didn’t think much more of it, other than constantly calling this friend Mojo of course in a mocking manner as he is generally that kind of guy that always has a few girls in tow.

A few days later I was talking with him and a handful of other people about this event and as we were talking through it we wondered if perhaps it could be related to God, and having mojo for the Lord.

I’ve been thinking about this, and even looked in the dictionary for a good definition for mojo. What I discovered was that mojo can mean a variety of things, some good but most of them not so much. I can say that how I always thought of mojo was the sort of energy or aura you produce that kind of draws other people to yourself; it’s your mojo. The slang dictionary does have one definition as “Power; or charisma.”

So if our mojo is of the Lord, then the thing that is constantly drawing others to ourselves is in actuality..the Lord? Maybe letting your light shine brightly for the Lord is the new definition for Mojo? God calls us to be salt…and to have mojo for him?

Hm. A whole new twist on things.