Mark·Prayer and stillness·32 of 34
Peace, be still
Peace, be still.
Mark 4:39 · King James Version
The word that stills a storm is the same word that can be spoken to a mind.
An inner reading
He says it to the sea, and the wind ceases. Read only as meteorology, it is a wonder at a distance. Read metaphysically, the sea is also the mind in weather: a surface whipped by thoughts it did not choose, a depth that was never actually in danger. Peace is addressed to the storm as if the storm can hear. In the story, it can.
“Be still” is not “be numb.” Stillness is the sea returned to what it is when wind is no longer mistaken for the water. You may speak this to a circumstance you cannot control. You may, more immediately, speak it to the inner weather that claims it is the whole of you. The Christ-life in you is not the wave. It is the one with authority to name the wave and not obey it.