Be Still - January 29, 2023

Isaiah 58: 11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.*

God reaches forth in unbelievable shows of generosity and pours himself into moments that we expect and into moments that we don’t expect.*

Among the tribes of the Plains Indians, there used to be a loosely organized “cult” whose members were committed to behavior that was contrary to the norm. According to Wikipedia, they “turned all social conventions into their opposites.” The Contraries’ bizarre behavior was often accompanied by inverse speech - saying the opposite of what they meant. Having a conversation with one of them must have been a lot of fun!

It might help us to appreciate the beauty of this verse in Isaiah if we apply some inverse speech to it. In the language of the Contrary Warriors, Isaiah might have said: The Lord will not give you any direction. He will leave you unsatisfied, sun-burned, weak, and thirsty. He is unreliable. Why would anyone worship a deity like that? And yet, idol-worshippers did exactly that. We may not know anyone who actually worships a graven image, but we all know someone who seems to worship nothing (or everything, or just things). The result is the same: directionless, unfulfilled, weak, and alone.

Read the verse again and revel in the refreshing, inviting imagery. Yes, that is the God we choose to worship. To do otherwise seems to be the epitome of contrary behavior.

The idolater simply imagines a conception of God and then acts as though his conceptions are true.*