Keep calm and carry on.
Keep calm and carry on.
A hymn by Horatius Bonar that praises the God who keeps us unflustered.
Have you ever researched the history, or read the story, behind that phrase, “Keep calm, and carry on”? I’m sure you have by now. It’s almost as familiar to us as Uncle Ben’s “with great responsibility” quip. The short version of the story is that the phrase originated from a morale-boosting campaign commissioned by the Brits at the height of the Second World War. Now it’s ubiquitously plastered all over Instagram. But, nevertheless, despite how banal it might seem, keeping calm and carrying on is, perhaps, one of the more difficult tasks in our modern age. No, we’re not on pins and needles waiting for the bomb raid alarm to sound. But, even still, there’s no denying the high tide of anxiety that riddles this current generation.
I won’t pretend to have medical prognoses for such matters. I’ll leave that to the professionals. However, what might help is if we prayed to the God who keeps us to keep us calm and allow us to carry on. I’m thinking specifically of that equally infamous passage of St. Paul’s, where he writes, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6–7). “Keep,” of course, is better rendered “guard,” which imbues us with the uncanny image of the God of peace guarding us with his peace, which, of course, is ours through his Son, the Prince of Peace.
I say all of that to say this: keeping calm and carrying on is very much an unattainable goal on our own. But the good news is that the calmness we crave is gifted to us in the Christ of God. May this hymn from Horatius Bonar serve as a prayer for you, in these days ahead, to resist letting “the tidings of the hour . . . find too fond an ear.” And, instead, pray to the God who bends his ear to our cries to calm us by bringing us close.
Calm me, my God, and keep me calm,
While these hot breezes blow,
Be like the night-dew’s cooling balm
Upon earth’s fevered brow.
Calm me, my God, and keep me calm,
Soft resting on thy breast,
Soothe me with holy hymn and psalm
And bid my spirit rest.
Calm me, my God, and keep me calm,
Let thine outstretched wing
Be like the shade of Elim’s palm
Beside her desert spring.
Yes, keep me calm, though loud and rude
The sounds my ear that greet,
Calm in the closet’s solitude,
Calm in the bustling street.
Calm in the hour of buoyant health,
Calm in my hour of pain,
Calm in my poverty or wealth,
Calm in my loss or gain.
Calm in the sufferance of wrong,
Like Him who bore my shame,
Calm ’mid the threatening, taunting throng,
Who hate thy holy name.
Calm when the great world’s news with power
My listening spirit stir;
Let not the tidings the hour
E’er find too fond an ear.
Calm as the ray of sun or star
Which storms assail in vain,
Moving unruffled through earth’s war,
The eternal calm to gain. (181–82)
May you be graced with a sense of the Spirit’s peace and calmness today, my friends.
Works cited:
Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope (New York: Robert Carter & Bros., 1866).