Surface Tension

First of all I want you to take a deep breath and breathe out slowly. Now just let your shoulders relax, so you’re not hunched up. Next let your arms feel free and perhaps just lower them down and don’t have a clenched fist.

The other day I was sitting having a quiet time and I found myself humming away with the tune, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). But the odd thing was that I didn’t realise that I was quite so tensed up, I hadn’t got anything particularly worrying me at that time or any stresses that I was aware of, but just sitting I found I was, if you like, in tension.

The picture here shows a stone skimming across the water, I’m sure most of us have tried it at some time, I think my record was the stone bouncing fifteen times before sinking. Mind you, I had found a pebble that was not only round, but very thin!

Of course, you know that it is all about the surface tension of water and for those studying history (or old enough to remember) that was the principle of Barnes Wallis’s Bouncing Bomb in the Dambusters raids during the second world war.

A trick I have found out is that when having an injection the secret is to really relax your arm and let it go all floppy and the tension goes and you are barely conscious of the jab.

I guess what I am saying is that tension comes in various ways and not even when we are thinking about it, maybe just clenching your teeth or standing in a queue.

Maybe you think I am bound to say it, but that verse from Psalms is so easy to remember but actually speaks volumes. It has, of course, to do with “The Peace of God that passes all (human) understanding that will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7)