One of my grandsons is five years old and at times it appears that every muscle in his body is moving all at once. He is not angry and he is not being rough. He is neither out of control nor reckless, but his body seems to be manifesting enough energy to power a mid-sized electric vehicle. He will simultaneously hop from one foot to the other while shaking the one that’s off the ground. Concurrently his arms will be outstretched, swinging up and down while his fingers are wriggling. Simultaneously he talks so quickly he’s almost incomprehensible. Using gentle hand motions and a soft tone we encourage him to slow down. Even as he obeys you can see it takes everything he has to rein the energy in.
That five-year-old kind of restlessness can exist in the soul of a grown Christian. Adults joke about wishing they could “bottle” a child’s energy for later use, but in a real way, Christians do bottle up the same kind of nervous energy in their soul. If their souls had arms, fingers, feet, toes and mouths they’d all be wiggling and babbling too!
Recently an author posed a question that caused me to stop and think. He wrote, “Are you quiet on the inside?” He asked about the “noise” of our hearts and its origin. He continued, “How do you get busy and preoccupied? Why do you lose your composure? When do you get worried, irritable, wearied, or hopeless?” These are powerful questions that require serious self-examination.
While the causes may require some soul-searching, the answer is laid out in clear terms in one of the briefest of all the psalms, Psalm 131. The fact that it is only three verses in length seems to add to its calming effect. In the opening verse David writes, “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”
David was not milquetoast and he was not without ambition. As a young shepherd he took on a lion and a bear and his first military conquest involved the oversized Goliath. But along with a boldness to obey God, was a humility that acknowledged God’s power and timing. The modern cliché “dream big” was not his focus. Instead, David’s prayer communicates the godlier principle “trust big.” To have a heart that is not “lifted up” is to be without presumption. He is not excessively concerned about things that are beyond his control. We know that David was not exempt from pride, but in the first verse of his prayer he demonstrates a kind of faithful restraint.
Verse two reads, “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” The alternative to being occupied with things beyond your control is to quiet yourself “like a weaned child.” A newborn will cry and shake the moment it senses a need. A weaned child, however, takes comfort in the presence of his mother. He knows that his needs will be met without fussing or crying when she is nearby. Without speaking a word the child enjoys a quiet confidence.
What starts as a description of faithful restraint and quiet confidence culminates in a call to devotion. “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” David transitions from talking about himself to giving a command to place your hope in God starting right now! Pin all your hopes on the Sovereign Creator. Be intentional. Devote yourself to it.
The solution to soul wiggles is to demonstrate faithful restraint and stop fretting about what you cannot control. It is to choose to enjoy a quiet confidence that all your needs will be met by the One Who will not leave your side and loves you even more than your mother. It is to be devoted (right now!) to placing every hope in its only true and lasting source, the triune God.
If you have soul wiggles, even if it takes everything you’ve got to rein that nervous energy in, pray through Psalm 131. Tell God (and yourself) that your hope is in Him from this time forth and forevermore.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. (Jer. 17:7–8)