1893) I recently was doing a poetry writing project with some of my young scholars. I had them write Circle Poems, where you start out with a subject and then let your mind take you to one subject after another, eventually circling back to what you started with. (For example: Trees, wood, cold, winter, snow, beauty, trees.) It was so interesting to read these poems when they were done because they revealed their thought processes to me.
 
My mind goes on similar journeys regularly. It’s interesting to me until the subjects in my mind contain things that are difficult or troubling to me. It’s thoughts like these I find very hard to stop.

When I read Mark 4:39, these thoughts surfaced. This verse appears in the middle of a violent storm where Jesus and his disciples are in a boat. The disciples thought many things, I’m sure, but I’m guessing many of them thought, this is it.
 
It’s in this context that Jesus said, Peace, be still. What I see in these three words today is when there’s a violent storm in my head or heart, Jesus’ peace will come when my head and heart are still. I can’t always produce this stillness, but I can ask God to do it.
 
There is peace to be found in stillness. Psalm 46:10