June 2025

Dear Cobham Park Church Family,
Before I begin my morning’s sermon preparation, I decide to quickly glance at the news on my phone. There, I find that nations are still destroying one another. Innocent people are dying. Politicians are threatening and insulting one another. This year’s hurricane season has started. AI is taking over everything. With each headline, I feel my heart rate go up. I’m interrupted by a friend’s text. He wants my advice for a thorny predicament. I haven’t finished the first sentence
of my reply when another incoming text reminds me that I need to have my septic tank checked. At the same time, I hear a few visitors walk through the carport door outside my study. But before I leave my desk to meet them, Tammy calls to inform me that she’s stranded with a dead car battery…
“Be still, and know that I am God.”*
It suddenly occurs to me that I’d completely forgotten about God. He’s here in my chaos. He’s still in charge. He is God—and I’m not. I should remind myself of His reality right now.
“Be still, and know that I am…”
I take a deep breath, remembering the presence of the great “I AM”. He is closer than the air I breathe.
“Be still, and know…”
I call to mind what I know about God: how He has made me, saved me, aided me, and amazed me through the years. He isn’t just a theoretical belief or religion. I know Him. And in Him, I begin to truly know myself.
“Be still…”
For a few seconds, I try to pause the whirring worry and endless analysis which have dominated my thoughts. The earth may shake and the mountains may fall into the sea, but I will quiet myself. Wars may rage, but I will stop long enough to trust God, my refuge and strength!
“Be…”
Deep within me where no one else can see—at the very foundation of who I am—He is the great I AM. He invites me to simply be His child and to be available in this moment. I choose to define myself by who I am instead of my to-do list. Right doing will then flow from right being!
In His Presence,
Pastor Keith