Are You Steady?

This morning during my prayer time I noticed how steady the candle flame was, burning straight and quietly. Maybe I noticed because the other day I had a candle so flickering and fluttering I had to blow it out. I was beginning to feel dizzy and ill even if I didn't look at it directly.

I'm fascinated by words and as I thought about the steadiness of the candle flame I wondered where the word came from and about it's meaning. I got this from an etymology site:

steady(adj.)

1520s, "firmly fixed in place or station" (displacing earlier steadfast, which came to be used of persons and characters), from stead + adjectival suffix -y (2), perhaps on model of Middle Dutch, Middle Low German stadig.

Old English had stæððig "grave, serious," and stedig "barren," but neither seems to be the direct source of the modern word. Old Norse cognate stoðugr "steady, stable" was closer in sense. As an adverb from c. 1600.

The meaning "working at an even rate" is recorded by 1540s, as is the sense of "free from irregular or uneven motion."

Originally of things; of persons or minds from c. 1600, "resolute, constant in purpose or pursuit." The colloquial sense of "regular in habits, not dissipated" is by 1832. The nautical use as a command ("steer steady") is attested by 1620s; hence probably the use as a cheer of encouragement and expressions such as steady as she goes.

 Middle English also has a noun, stead:

stead(n.)

Middle English stede, from Old English stede, steode "particular place, place in general, position occupied by someone;" also "standing, firmness, stability, fixity," from Proto-Germanic *stadi- (source also of Old Saxon stedi, Old Frisian sted, Old Norse staðr "place, spot; stop, pause; town," Swedish stad, Dutch stede "place," Old High German stat, German Stadt "town," Gothic staþs "place").

Think of the many words rooted in "stead:" steadfast, homestead, instead, unsteady. Many I've never heard of like Volstead which refers to the Prohibition Act introduced by Congressman Volstead. So what does his name mean? "A place of strong will." And the ladies of prohibition certainly conjure up that image, with a determined "steadfastness."

You can see how my interest in words takes me down many a rabbit hole as I follow each new element in the word search. The link to prohibition made me laugh because of the recent threat from women on the left to cut men off from their beds. And then I ended up at Bible Hub seeing the many references to steadiness. That's a post for another day. 

At any rate, I want to be as steady as that candle flame on a calm day. I also want to be as steady as a tight ship in a hurricane being "steady as she goes." I want to be steady and resolute in my spiritual life, "regular in habit" and "not dissipated." I want to be firmly attached to my fixed point, the cross of Christ.

Today I will try to be steady no matter what comes my way trusting in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ who is always steadfast in His love for us.  

Let's make sure we are steadfast in right things only and avoid being zealously steady to promote evil like those Yeats described when he wrote:

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity"

Make us steadfast in our love for you, O Lord, like the cedars of Lebanon.