selah

I’ve committed this year to read through the entire Bible in chronological order. I’m into the history of it all. Dates, years, knowing what else was happening in the world while Jesus lived (cue the nerd glasses.)  It's an uphill mountain I’m recognizing- especially after Austin asked when exactly I’d reach the first words of the New Testament? Mid September. Ouch. Needless to say, I’m rolling deep in the Old for well over half the year.

 

Despite the richness of theology and lessons dripping from the ancient words of Genesis, I’ve skipped ahead a few times to some of my favorite words ever to be written or recorded. Those are the words of the Psalms. Psalms of heartfelt emotion, ranging from bottomless sorrows to triumphant victories that paint with such perfection the journey we’re all on.

Among my favorite words in the Psalms are a few hidden treasures so drenched with wisdom and subtlety that upon encounter I long to know more of their beautiful purpose.

Selah

Kristin’s dumbed-down, non-seminary definition of this word goes a little something like this: take a minute to dwell, reflect, and be in awe of the words you just read, the Spirit that just moved, and the love so radically unmatched that is available as your free gift today.

Selah.

Stop. Pause. Don’t try to comprehend. Don’t be anxious to get to the next verse. Stop. Notice. And fill up your cup with silence.

There are so many things. So many duties, responsibilities, callings, goals, and plans. We play a game of Battleship in our minds. Strategically moving our ship in over-complicated plans, trying at all costs to avoid the unavoidable circumstances that don’t go our way and eventually sink our joy.  But each moment that we’re alive today has the potential to be captured in liberating simplicity. 

Selah.

In a world that so relentlessly wears me down with its achievement ladders and obsession with productivity, I am drawn like a wounded soldier to the healing hope of being still. So the next time I find myself reading a Psalm and the gentle, italicized reminder shows up on the page… I’ll allow my mind to release and reside in the GREATNESS of God, the insignificance of me, and the incomprehensible truth that He deems me significant enough to live in that greatness.