Prayer: Dear God, thank you for your never-ending presence when we find ourselves lost or in trouble. May we always turn to you when needing refuge and strength. Help us to be still and trust that you are a good God. Amen. Reading: Psalm 46 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: We sing a song at camp called “Be Still and Know That I Am God,” and we often sing it as an introduction at campfire on Sunday nights as a way to start building a community that includes all campers. After the chorus, which includes a lot of clapping and quotes verse 10, “be still and know that I am God…” (if you are frequent visitor of camp, I am sure you just sang that in your head), everyone is instructed to have some sort of interaction with other campers and staff members. The verses usually include fun ice breakers like, “all you gotta do is shake someone else’s hand…” After working at camp for four summers and being a camper for even more, while reading this Psalm I immediately think of the camp song, but after more reflection I thought that the song really doesn’t seem to fit the Psalm. Verse 1 talks of God being our refuge and an ever-present help in trouble, and in verse 10 it tells the reader to be still. This camp song doesn’t ask us to be still at all, it is actually the opposite. But what if being still can mean something different. What if being still means stilling your mind of worry and apprehension when in a new or troublesome situation and just going with the flow? What if being still means trusting God and meeting that new person or two, asking questions when you feel lost, and humbling yourself to allow God and others to help you? --Anne Harshbarger
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