Life has its dormant seasons – periods devoid of either storms or pleasant breezes. These “doldrums” tempt us to imagine we are adrift and outside of God’s gaze. Physical stillness, however, is an illusion. Cells are multiplying, gases are expanding, photosynthesis is filling our lungs. Reality should provide us with an overwhelming sense of motion and activity. Our planet spins and orbits with unimaginable force (rotating at 1,040 mph at the equator while orbiting the sun at close to 67,000 mph). The universe violently expands. The sun and the solar system appear to be moving at an average speed of 448,000 mph. The steering winds flow over the earth driving storms and air masses, producing hurricanes and snowstorms, floods, avalanches crop growth, flowing torrents. People are being born, learning, building, fighting, loving, moving.
In the midst of this power and motion, we despair of the false still that causes our faith and contentment to be tested. Our inability to grasp the enormous forces at work both beneath and above the surface of life deceive us. This lie questions God’s goodness, God’s desire and God’s ability to affect the outcome. It reduces life to a series of unconnected, uninspired events. It suggests that God has fallen silent or that his words are impotent. Believing the lie deadens both faith and imagination.
Silence is also a deception. The word spoken by Jesus is alive and active in sustaining our brief earthly visit – and making us alive for eternity. Our failure to hear and perceive God’s voice says more about our condition than God’s inactivity.
(Hebrews 1:3 NIV
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.)