Friday, July 15, 2011

Be Still, and Let the Butterflies Come to You

One of my favorite scriptures says very simply:

"Be still, and know that I am God."


I don't know who said the following initially, but I really like the principle it teaches:

"You can chase a butterfly all over the field and never catch it, but if you sit still in the grass it will come to you and rest on your shoulder."


Sometimes we really do need to quit chasing the butterflies and let them come to us.

4 comments:

Howard said...

I love that scripture and understand it to mean meditate and you will receive divine guidance.

ji said...

Be still, be quiet, be believing -- I need to save this thought about the butterfly because it is worth repeating in an appropriate situation.

PaulM said...

The quote in the OP is paraphrased from an essay by John Stuart Mill in which he discusses the pursuit of happiness. The point he drives home is that those who pursue happiness for happiness' sake are doomed to have said object constantly flutter just out of reach whereas those who fix themselves upon some other endeavor frequently find said happiness as well.

Papa D said...

Thanks, Paul. I'm not surprised it comes from Mill, as I really like his writings.

There are a lot of applications of that concept, both in and out of scripture. I'll file it away as something to consider for future posts.