quiet

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

I used to hate the quiet. It felt uncomfortable. I needed noise. I remember when I was in school and had homework to complete. Instead of isolating myself from the rest of my family, I would turn on the television and do my homework in front of it, with all my books littered across the living room floor. It helped me to concentrate. Or else I would play some music. The noise helped me be more productive.

I remember visiting my grandparents and how much they actually like the quiet. And the dark. Picture this; my grandparents sitting in silence, not speaking to each other while they stared out the window. As the sun faded and it was about to become too dark in their living room to see, they would finally turn on the lamp. And just like a scene from a movie, the only noise at their house was a grandfather clock and you could hear the slow ticking sound with the occasional chime, marking the hour and half hour. And they seemed to be liking it.

So, fast forward a few decades, and I catch myself sitting in my living room without a sound. No television, no music, no phone, looking out the window. But, not in the dark- I can’t do without the lights! And I am finding that I am starting to like it too just as my grandparents had. Why? Maybe my age? Maybe I’ve had too much noise before? I’ve raised three kids before after all! I’m not sure exactly. But, I do know it does wonders for my mental health. Maybe the older generations knew something they we don’t.

It isn’t always easy to be still. I want to keep busy. To keep distracted. So I don’t have to stop and overthink. To overthink and attempt to solve all my problems. This overthinking and solving becomes consuming at times and adds to my anxiety and stress. Sound familiar to you too?

The more I think the more I get stressed and worried. If only I could be quiet and not over think so much. Awe…. I get what my grandparents were doing…..shutting out the world’s noise……and being still. Stopping to enjoy the moment in silence. To stare out the window and view God’s creation and admire it. Maybe to reflect on days past, but not to be so busy they couldn’t stop and turn off the noise.

The verse above is from the Book of Psalms- one of my favorite book of the Bible. I researched the verse a bit further and found that in some versions, the verse reads “Stop fighting and know that I am God” (Christian Standard Bible) Interesting.Verse nine from the passage speaks about God’s destruction of weapons of war and of causing wars to cease. And then verse ten tells the audience to stop fighting. Verse eleven explains that God is with His people.

Did you notice it too? God ends the war and destroys the weapons and then instructs the reader to stop fighting, or be still and know that He is God. He is with His people. God had stopped the war, but the readers needed to be reminded to stop fighting. To be still. Isn’t it just like us to keep fighting in our minds, even though the war is ended? God’s got this, but we seem to forget that fact. No matter how much we keep warring in our minds- ie anxiety and worry, God is God and He knows our fighting with our own thoughts won’t change anything. That might be a stretch in interpretation of the verse, but God’s commanding the reader to be still and stop fighting seems to fit. Be quiet. Shut out the noise. Shut down the anxiety. Just let our minds be quiet. So we can reflect on God and His goodness. To stare out the window and see His creation. To see the goodness in what He has done for our enjoyment.

When we quiet ourselves, something else happens; we can listen for His voice. The still, small voice of God, guiding and directing us. Helping us. Don’t let the noise and busyness drown Him out. – God Bless – Nancy

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”– Mark 6:31

A Quiet Place In The Country

Some people seem to thrive on the busyness of life. They are always in a constant state of movement. Running to the next scheduled event and always running behind just a bit. Their schedules are overbooked and overfilled with barely enough time to stop for a lunch break.

And it is not just busy CEO’s who cram every second of their busy schedules. Sometimes it is moms or dads or even the children who barely have time to breathe. For many of us, regardless of our jobs or titles, we can, at some points in our lives, just get over busy, over planned, and over worked. And while some people seem to thrive on it, too much of busyness and rush can take a toll on us. We need a break. We need a vacation. We need a quiet place in the country.

Reality is that even the country can be busy and noisy, (animals, farm machinery, etc) but compared with the constant noise and rush of urban areas, it does appear quieter. And many people seek out places in the countryside to visit at or even to purchase. It becomes a getaway from the hustle and bustle. A place to rest. A place to finally breathe and make room to think and relax.

I have found that I am especially sensitive to too much noise. I like visiting cities and do enjoy the fast pace of them. I actually like airports too, because I get to observe all the people coming and going in a hurry. It can be energizing for me. But after a awhile, I too, am longing for some peace and quiet. Too many loud voices, sirens and car horns can get to be too much.

Especially loud people in otherwise quiet restaurants, where I am trying to relax and enjoy a nice meal. Anybody agree? People, please use your inside voices when inside a restaurant and no, we, and I am speaking for my fellow diners, do not want to hear your entire phone conversation on speakerphone! Nor do we like listening to a one sided, blue tooth conversation as you appear to be talking to yourself.

Okay, so now that we have cleared that up, let’s look at the verse above. Jesus called the disciples aside and told them to go and find a quiet place. To eat. To rest. And to get away from the crowds. A secluded place. A place in the country.

Why? because they apparently did not have time even to eat. The crowds were demanding more and even following the group. They had recently come back from a ministry trip that must have been exhausting and had recently gotten news of John the Baptists beheading. For which they also went and retrieved the rest of his body for burial.

As Mark writes this Gospel, he records this event right before the feeding of the five thousand. Makes sense to me then that this was important. This rest before the gathering of the large crowd to feed. I wonder what this would have looked like if the disciples hadn’t had the time of rest. To refresh their bodies and their spirit. It would be like trying to run on empty. The very thing we often find ourselves doing. Just pushing through it, grabbing a protein bar or fast food, instead of finding a quiet place to relax and enjoy our meal. Or maybe it is working through all our vacation days. Maybe it is failing to say no to others, even though we know our schedule is already too full.

We cannot run on empty. We, like the disciples need to rest in order to prepare ourselves for what God has next. We need seclusion and quiet. The English Standard Version bible replaces the word quiet (found in the NIV Bible) with a desolate place. It is an interesting choice of words, but maybe carries a greater meaning. A desolate place gives an image of nothing else around. Completely secluded. No internet, No cell phones.

Jesus himself often went away to secluded places to pray to the Father. He too, needed to separate Himself from the busyness. If Jesus found a quiet place in the country, why should we think we are being more spiritual or more holy when we try to press though our schedules and sacrifice our quiet time with God, or with just the simple act of eating and taking care of our physical bodies. Let’s follow Jesus and find that quiet, secluded space. – God Bless, Nancy

Taking it to the source

So, my dad owns an older home in the country and has as his water source a spring. The spring is located a few hundred feet away from his home and provides water for not only his house but also my brothers and a neighbor. Now, before you think to yourself, wow! spring water that I don’t have to buy from a little bottle or have delivered by the jug!, Must be sweet. Well, it isn’t all that free sometimes for my dad. There is this long pipe that runs down the side of the road he lives on, under his driveway and into the house. Quite often, this pipe springs a leak somewhere along its length.The only way he can tell when this has happened is for his water pressure to drop and puddles start forming along the road and driveway. The only way to fix the pipe is to first locate the source of the break. This is not as easy as it might sound, for water from the spring runs down a hill alongside the road. The break could be nearer to the spring or further down the piping. It is a matter of trial and error (digging up dirt along the sections of pipe) to find the break. Once he finds the location, the source, he can fix it, and restore his water supply to his home.

Lately, I have been feeling, like many of you, like there is a break in my flow of peace. It is not difficult to find the location of the break, just take a look around the current world situation and it is easy to identify the cause, the source. We feel like chaos and anxiety are winning in the battle for our minds and souls. We are stressed and uneasy, we are feeling insecure and unsure of even making the basic decisions. I sympathize with parents of school aged children who must make decisions about the school year. School administrations are right in there with attempting to decide what to do in the best interests of their students and teachers. We feel confused. We read up on the virus and on the recovery rates, we search for answers and we search for peace in the chaos.

On social media and news feeds we are bombarded with many sides of the same story. Which view is right? Which view is wrong? Is there a right or wrong? Or are we all victims of a greater plot to disrupt our unity as humans so that we see each other as enemies rather than men and women who are created by God in His image? We are seeking truth, but finding more chaos. We are looking for a source for truth, a source for peace. It feels as though our water pipe is broken and we are all parched, thirsty, craving pure spring water that will soothe our weary, tired and parched souls and minds.

Even the most highly respected pastors and ministers of the Gospel are feeling this anxiety and lack of peace. The current situation with the pandemic and violence and confusion happening surrounding the protests for social justice cannot be ignored while Christians pretend it is not there. There is a leak in the pipe. We cannot ignore the problem, but can we seek a better way to deal with it all?

I believe there is. Recently, I have been spending time reading some great books by some great Christian writers that deal with this mind and spiritual battle that is going on in their lives as well. What I have taken away from it is this, we can live in this chaos by re-framing our thinking and focusing on Jesus, our source of peace. See the world and the problems of the world are not going to just disappear.We live in the tension of a world that is groaning and grappling with chaos as it longs for the day when everything will be set right again. Jesus told us that there would be trouble in this world. But He also told us that He was giving us His peace, the peace that was sure and lasting, not the peace the world gives( John 14:27). If you haven’t read the Book of John before, or if it has been awhile, it is a good place to start to calm your chaos. It will remind you and help you understand just who Jesus is and what He taught. He came to earth as a man, fully human, and He knows what we are feeling. He felt pain, suffering, grief, anger, disappointment. He knows well what we are all going through right now. One thing to remember is He often went off by Himself and prayed to God. Theologians sometimes grapple with this concept, after all Jesus is God, part of the Trinity, so why did He have to pray, was He talking to Himself? True, He is part of the Trinity, father, son and Holy Spirit, but each is different in role, and He, Jesus, was seeking to do the will of the Father, so communication was important.

Which brings me back to my final point, and one which I am personally trying to incorporate in my daily routine. I have been challenged and convicted about how much importance I have given to social and news feeds in my daily life. I check my phone before I go to sleep and first thing in the morning and I’ve realized it is too connected to my day. It feeds into my anxiety and chaos. I am deciding to leave my phone out of my bedroom at night while it charges. It is too addicting to check it every time it dings. It seems to be one source in my life that has been feeding my anxiety. My husband has decided to stay off of face book for a while because he has realized it changes him and how he views others. Often our phones are what keeps fueling the leaking of our peace as a society. We can easily find something to upset us, or something to which we disagree on with on our news feeds and social media. Our phones are always with us, feeding this anxiety, non stop. For you it might be your tablets, or laptops or TV. Or maybe the radio or podcasts you listen to as you commute. The basic question to ask yourself is what am I letting into my thoughts? What am I giving my allegiance to? Is it helping me, or hurting me emotionally, mentally, spiritually? Am I giving it greater significance than God? Is it making me a better person? Or a bitter, angry, anxious, stressed out one? As a Christian am I reflecting God, or the world?

The source of our anxiety might be the pandemic and social unrest, but are we adding gasoline to the fire by what we are fueling our minds with? To get back to my water pipe analogy, what are we doing that breaks our peace? Are we taking a sledge hammer to our flow of peace by what we devote ourselves to? Are we passively letting the media tell us what to think and believe? Are we letting ourselves be anxious? Are we truly searching for the source of peace?

Its easy to find the leak, its worry and stress, and we can make it worse, as I tried to explain, but what are we doing positively to fix the broken flow of peace in our lives? In a world that seems out of control,this is something we have control over. Just like my husband and I can choose to put some distance between the chaos that is being fed through our need to be in constant contact with media, and replace it with quiet , you can as well. To stop and give God space in our lives and in our thoughts. To meditate on God and His word. To pray and to be quiet enough to hear God speak.