Be Still and Know: Finding God’s Presence in the Storm

Part 1 of 2—The testimony of Gentry and Hadley Eddings

 

On May 22, 2015, Gentry and Hadley Eddings were getting ready for a wedding on the North Carolina coast. In the rush of the morning, the two of them started to bicker over something small and unimportant. Their two-year-old son, Dobbs, interrupted them with a verse he had memorized:

“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

It stopped them in their tracks. They slowed down, softened toward each other, and went on to celebrate a beautiful day on the beach with family and friends.

The next morning they packed up to drive home. As they came to a stop at a red light, a distracted driver who was under the influence kept going at full speed and crashed into them from behind. Hadley, who was 36 weeks pregnant, was rushed into an emergency C-section.

In the ER, Gentry’s father came into the room with the news: Dobbs was in the arms of Jesus. Two days later, their newborn son, Reed, also passed away from injuries he sustained in the accident.

In a single moment, everything changed. And the words their little boy had spoken over them the day before took on a meaning they never could have imagined:

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

Out of that loss, Gentry and Hadley have spent the years since pointing others to the God who met them in the storm. Their story is not a tidy one, and they don’t pretend that it is. But it is a story of hope—the kind of hope that holds when everything else gives way.

God Is Our Refuge in the Storm

Grief is something all of us experience. It arrives when we lose someone or something important—a loved one, a relationship, our health, a job, or a sense of stability. Sometimes the waves of grief are small. Sometimes they are large enough to knock us off our feet.

Psalm 46 speaks directly into those waves. It calls God our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble—so that we need not fear even when the earth gives way and the mountains crumble into the sea. And a few verses on comes the line Dobbs had memorized: be still, and know that He is God.

For Gentry and Hadley, those words became an anchor. “Be still and know” is not a command to feel nothing. It is a reminder that God walks with us through the deep waters, that He is present in the storm, and that we are never alone in it.

Gentry describes a picture he once saw of massive waves crashing against a lighthouse. Because the lighthouse was built on solid rock, the waves couldn’t move it. In the same way, our lives can stand firm in grief because we stand on the solid ground of God’s faithfulness. They couldn’t understand why this had happened to them. But they chose to believe that God was still present and still in control—and that belief allowed them to stand.

If you’re in a storm of grief today, you can ask God to meet you there. Let Him be your refuge and your solid ground. He sees you, He cares for you, and He is able to hold your life steady even when everything feels broken.

We Grieve, but We Grieve with Hope

Sometimes we assume that faith means stuffing our emotions and putting on a brave face. But Scripture tells a different story. Grief is a healthy and natural response to loss, and God welcomes every honest emotion we bring to Him.

We see this in Jesus Himself. Standing at the tomb of His friend Lazarus, Jesus wept. The Son of God knows what it is to feel grief, to have a heart heavy with sorrow and tears running down His face. His example tells us that it is right and good to grieve what we’ve lost.

Gentry is honest about how that grief unfolded for him. For a long time, there was nothing but deep sorrow—going into his son’s room, aching to hold him again. In time, the sadness turned to anger. He remembers praying and telling God plainly how wrong it all was. And he found that God did not turn away from those honest cries. The Lord listened, understood, and met him with tender mercy and compassion.

But for those who follow Jesus, grief is never the whole story. We grieve and we hope at the same time. Our hope isn’t an abstract idea—it’s a person. Because Jesus died and rose again, He holds the promise of eternal life, and nothing that comes against us gets the final word.

When God Feels Silent

Sometimes the hardest part of grief is not only what happened—it is the silence afterward. The prayers seem unanswered. The questions linger. The pain remains. Gentry and Hadley lived in that silence too, asking why and hearing no immediate reply.

Yet throughout Scripture, God meets His people in exactly these seasons of waiting. His silence is not His absence. Even when we cannot trace what He is doing, He has not let go of us; He draws near and walks with us through it.

The same God who met David in the wilderness and drew near to Mary and Martha in their sorrow remains with us today. His nearness is often the very thing that sustains us when answers do not come.

When Grief Skews Your Vision, God Lifts Your Eyes

Grief has a way of narrowing our sight. It’s a bit like having your eyes dilated: for a while, everything is blurry and overwhelming, and it’s hard to keep anything in perspective. All you can see is the pain.

The book of Job describes a man who knew that feeling well. Job lost his children, his possessions, and his health, and out of his suffering he began to ask God the hardest questions: Why is this happening? Why are You allowing it?

In response, God gently widened Job’s view. He reminded Job that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. At first, that can sound like a harsh reply. But God was being kind. He was reminding Job—and us—that He is greater than everything, even our deepest suffering. In lifting Job’s eyes from his grief to His own greatness, God gave Job a gift: a worshipful, hopeful perspective.

Gentry tells of a quiet morning on the back porch, weighed down by stress, when a small bird began to sing from a nearby tree. The thought struck him: if God sees and cares for this little bird, surely He sees and cares for me. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need—for God to lift our eyes off our grief and back onto His goodness.

God’s Word Is a Light for the Path

Navigating grief can feel like wandering through a maze, longing for answers and finding little clarity. But God doesn’t leave us in the dark. In the months after the accident, Gentry and Hadley found Scripture to be a steady source of direction when everything else had changed overnight.

Gentry remembers one sleepless night when his heart and mind were racing. He opened his Bible and was reminded that God was with him, that he did not need to be afraid, and that the Lord would strengthen and uphold him. Those promises reassured him that he was not alone and had not been abandoned. After reading and praying, he was finally able to rest.

Hadley found her own anchor in a verse reminding her that God gives a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline rather than fear. She had it framed so she could see it every day. These promises are gifts—light that helps us see who God is and where to take the next step. If reading Scripture is new to you, a trustworthy devotional or commentary can help, and so can connecting with a local church where you can read the Bible in community.

God Is Working—Even Now—for Good

When you’re grieving, it’s nearly impossible to imagine how any good could come from your pain. Yet Scripture makes a remarkable promise: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).

It’s worth reading that carefully. It doesn’t say everything that happens is good. It says all things work together for good—the good and the painful alike, woven toward God’s purposes. That’s an important difference when you’re in the middle of loss.

Gentry and Hadley have watched that promise unfold in ways they never expected. After the accident, people began donating to support the family. Through those gifts, the Eddings partnered with Mission of Hope to build a school in Haiti named after their sons—the Dobbs and Reed Eddings Primary School—which provides food and education to hundreds of children in need. Watching those children learn and eat a hot lunch was a vivid reminder that God can bring good even from circumstances we never would have chosen.

That doesn’t erase the loss, and it doesn’t explain it away. But it does mean that no part of your story is wasted in His hands.

Be Still, and Know

If you’re walking through grief today, the invitation is the same one a little boy spoke over his parents the day before everything changed: be still, and know that He is God. He is your refuge and your solid ground. He welcomes your honest tears and meets them with hope. He lifts your eyes, lights your path, and works even now for your good.

You are not alone in the storm. May that truth strengthen your walk today.

In Part 2, Gentry and Hadley share how God uses trials to shape us, the freedom found in forgiveness, and the comeback story He is still writing. Click here to read Part 2 of Gentry and Hadley Eddings’ testimony.