Choosing Stillness Over Fight or Flight
I thought I knew my Bible birds: sparrows, eagles, ravens, and even the poor rooster that unwittingly took part in Peter's darkest hour. But recently, I met a new feathered friend, and I can't believe I've been overlooking it all these years. Allow me to introduce the bittern.
I know, it sounds more like a stomach issue than a bird. But this "crazy" bird has completely captured my imagination. The bittern appears in a couple of places in Scripture, tucked away in verses about ruined cities becoming lonely, marshy places: "I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water..." (Isaiah 14:23). It's a secretive marsh bird that blends so well with the reeds that you can stare right at it and never see it.
Here's the part that really struck me. When danger approaches, the bittern doesn't flap around, screech, or take off in a panic. Instead, it stretches its long neck straight up, points its beak toward the sky, and freezes. Completely still. Its streaky feathers blend in with the surrounding reeds, and the predator often passes right by.
No frantic fight. No panicked flight. Just upward focus and stillness.
I don't know about you, but my default settings seem to be "panic" and "run." If a problem comes my way, I either want to fix it (preferably yesterday) or flee the scene and pretend it doesn't exist. Fight or flight. Those are the big options we hear about, even from the secular world.
But the bittern quietly reminds me there is a third option: look up and be still.
Spiritually speaking, there are times to stand and fight the good fight of faith. There are also times when the Lord clearly tells us to flee, such as from youthful lusts, temptation, and foolish behaviors that lead to destruction and perdition. But in between those two, there are many days when the most spiritual thing I can do is what that odd little marsh bird does: lift my gaze heavenward, grow quiet, and hold still.
"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10a).
If I'm honest, I've tried to edit that verse in my heart. I want it to read, "Be busy, and God will help you fix this," or, "Be strong, and prove you can handle it." Stillness feels like doing nothing, and doing nothing makes me feel out of control. And I do not like feeling out of control!
Yet that's exactly the point, isn't it? Stillness admits that I am not in control... but God is.
Think of Israel at the Red Sea, mountains on either side, water in front, and Pharaoh's army behind. Talk about fight-or-flight pressure. Yet Moses said, "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day" (Exodus 14:13a). No frantic thrashing. No sprint for the hills. Just stand still and watch what God can do.
For me, bittern-style stillness looks like this:
Instead of arguing with every fear in my mind, I deliberately stop and turn my thoughts toward the Lord.
Instead of running in circles trying to fix everything, I choose to sit quietly with my Bible open and my heart listening.
Instead of rehearsing the worst-case scenarios, I whisper, "Lord, thou knowest," and let that be enough for this moment.
Isaiah 26:3 says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Notice it doesn't say, "whose mind is racing" or "whose hands are fixing," but "whose mind is stayed." That means settled, anchored, and fixed on the Lord. That's the spiritual version of the bittern lifting its face toward the sky and standing motionless among the reeds.
The next time your heart jumps into fight-or-flight mode, remember the odd little bird hiding in your Bible margins. Like the bittern, you don't always have to swing your fists or run for your life. Sometimes the most powerful, faith-filled choice is to lift your eyes toward Heaven, quiet your soul, and simply stand still.
The danger may still be there. The problem may not vanish. But in that still, upward-focused place, you'll find something far better than control. You'll find God Himself.
And when He is your hiding place, you don't have to fight or flee. You can simply rest.
🔍 PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN: A Peek at the Study Behind This Post
This devotion started with one simple question: “What on earth is a bittern, and is it in my Bible?”
I stumbled over the word bittern in my Animals of the Bible study. At first, I thought I had made a mistake when I compiled my list, but I looked it up, and sure enough, it was in the Bible…and more than once! Evidently, I’d been skimming past it for years.
Next, I chased down the other place it shows up — Zephaniah 2:14 — and noticed the bittern is mentioned in lonely, marshy, desolate places. Well, that definitely set the mood for a quiet, hidden bird.
Curious about what it actually does, I dug into bird resources (Google and AI) and discovered that bitterns freeze with their necks stretched up, blending perfectly with reeds, a living picture of stillness and upward focus.
With that image in mind, I started asking, “Where does God tell us to do something like this?” That led me to verses like Psalm 46:10 and Exodus 14:13 about being still and standing still before the Lord.
Finally, the “fight, flight, or stillness” idea clicked, so I jotted down the bittern’s behavior, my own anxiety tendencies, and those key verses, and the devotion practically wrote itself from there.
Total Time: All told, this little study took about an hour, plus a few extra minutes of bird-nerding because, well, once you start, it’s hard to stop.
Want to try this yourself? Next time a strange word or image in Scripture grabs you, don’t just ignore it or skim over it. Pause and chase it down. Look up cross-references, peek at a dictionary, and ask, “What is God showing me here?” You might be surprised how a tiny detail, like a shy marsh bird, turns into a whole treasure chest of truth.