Quiet

 October 21, 2021

Noise and sound…a conversation with our granddaughter yesterday focused at one point upon these two words. She expects by the first of the month to be in NYC for her work. She’s been there before, and has learned some things about herself from the experience. “I’m a country girl. I don’t think I could live in the city permanently (like one of her high school friends is doing). It’s never dark and never quiet.” 

I understand. I’ve been tempted more than once to shoot out the street light in front of our house. Since I’m a village trustee, that probably wouldn’t be too good an idea, but I’ve been tempted. One of the things I particularly enjoyed on our Canadian canoe trips years ago was being beyond the haze of city lights at night. The stars popped out like never before in the darkness of Algonquin. Most of the park was off-limits to motorboats, so the nighttime quiet was loud with peepers and the call of the loons.

Even today, as one who loves music, I rarely turn on the radio. I can drive for hours in a silence that envelops me with its peace. I would love it more were it not for the continual ringing in my ears that has plagued me since childhood. I don’t know what real silence sounds like. 

I do know this…it often takes quiet stillness to be able to hear God speak. We have filled our lives with so much noise and sound that his voice is barely heard, for he doesn’t shout often. He calls to us in the stillness, as he indicates in psalm 46:10–“Be still, and know that I am God.” Often, like Elijah, we expect God to speak through the storm, earthquake, and fire, but he waits till we are silent.

We are blessed with myriad forms of communication, enabling us to livestream worship, listen to world-class preachers, attend seminars on all sorts of Christian topics. I wonder however, if sometimes all that is available to us ends up being so much noise, deadening our ability to listen in silence for the God who whispers. I wonder how much we would profit by turning off the tv, laying down the newspaper, setting aside our phones, laptops, and tablets, and picking up the Bible. I guess the only way to find out is to try doing it.