Be Still

During the end of the year, I always reflect on my life and evaluate all the year has brought me and my family. This year, I find myself pretty much in the same place. I want to stop, but I keep viewing my Christian faith through the eyes of an American Christian. I guess it just gets so easy to look though rose colored glasses when we live in a very blessed place. I know we have our issues and I know the problems are real, but for the most part we are blessed.

I recently re-read a story of Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh. They described their harrowing tale of imprisonment by the Iranian regime because of their Christian faith. These two ladies personify the biblical admonition that we should gain joy through suffering and trials. (James 1: 2-3) Okay, let me stop here. Wow, I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like the idea of suffering or going though trials.

Both women were raised in Muslim homes in Iran. Having never embraced Islam, they became Christians as young adults. They met each other in 2005 while studying theology in Turkey. When they returned to Iran, they evangelized together for several years, covertly distributing Bibles to some twenty thousand people and starting two secret house churches. In March 2009 they were arrested in Tehran for promoting Christianity, which is punishable by death.

When a Muslim prisoner said they were “silly” for not renouncing Christianity, Marziyeh replied, “Our insistence on our faith is not out of stubbornness. . . . I have lived with God for many years. . . . He is my all.” We are inseparable. My life has no value without Him. I love God so much that denying Him would be denying my own existence. How could I ever deny something that is in every cell of my body? I would rather spend the rest of my life in prison if that’s what it takes to stay close to Him. I would rather be killed than kill the spirit of Christ within me.”

I must confess that I talk about faith like that, but rarely experience it. The verse that jumps out to me is Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Well that’s my problem…being still. I am so ADD that it took me forever to write this blog. Squirrel! Technology is great but it has also become a distraction especially for people like me. I pray that God would allow me to be still at least a few minutes each day. I pray God would remind me that through the storms and through the trials (even though most of them are first world problems, but still problems) that I can experience God’s presence in my life. I want to be able to say like Marzlyeh, “I love God so much that denying him would be denying my own existence.”