How many times have we asked for just some peace and quiet? Whether it is at work or at home, we always seem to be surrounded by noise. Constant noise drives me crazy. I don't mean music or even the TV, but jabbering children, car horns, leaf blowers, and the such that I deal with on a daily basis.
Tuesday morning I got up and decided to take a nice long walk. I've been enjoying my walking lately. Mornings, afternoons, evenings - it doesn't matter. Tuesday, when I woke up and began walking I was startled by the quiet. Here it is in March, and we are experiencing some "colder" weather - hey, it's cold for South Carolina, okay? With the drop in temperature it seemed everyone went back into hibernation. I live in a neighborhood where cars are out at all hours. Tuesday, none. As I walked one street, there is a grassy area before some wooded areas. These woods have been known to be a play area for kids with too much time and energy. When it's dark, I don't walk on the path near the woods for that reason. So a good distance off, in the midst of nothingness and wooded area, I hear a squeaking noise. Imagine the hollow squeaks of a swing after a child has been abducted in a freaky movie. That's what I'm hearing from the woods. I picked up my pace. I kept hoping for a car to turn the corner. It didn't happen. Just as the human life in the neighborhood ceased to exist, so did the animal life. Most mornings I pass by barking dogs all around. The sound of birds calling is refreshing - ooo ie ooooo ie oo ie oo ie. And this time of year I am bound to see a minimum of four rabbits in the distance that I walked. Yet it wasn't until about a mile and a half that I saw one solitary rabbit running out of the fence and down the alley. It was the lack of animals that really unnerved me. Animals have instincts that we cannot ignore. The only other time I have been out in my neighborhood and heard silence from animals was immediately after a hurricane passed. For a bit I began to worry that the animals were hiding from something more than the cold of the morning. Why is it that the quiet is so unnerving? In this day and age we beg for peace and quiet only to fill it with facebook videos or TV. Because we really aren't asking for quiet, we're asking to not hear specific people or things. When we have true quiet, that is when we are able to truly hear and think. It can be scary. Many alcoholics drink because they can't be left alone with their thoughts. They fight the feelings of unworthiness by killing their livers. For many, quiet means conviction. There's the nudge in the gut that points out our faults, not to judge, but to bring back to right. And if we aren't ready to be right, we drown out that voice. However, it's in the quiet that we are able to hear God. The Bible teaches that we must listen for the still small voice. The cliche of God is that He is a roaring angry God that booms with thunder. When He speaks to us, He speaks to our hearts. He whispers to our spirit. We need to turn off the noise to hear the word of God. He is a gentleman. And we have free will. Are we allowing our will to shut out God because we don't want to hear what He has to say? My guess would be a big fat yes. Too often we make the choice to drown out the whisper. Quiet is scary. Quiet is conviction. Quiet means we will hear. And if we hear, then we make the choice to obey, or walk away. It is now on us. Before we had the out to say that we never heard. Though Tuesday's quiet began to freak me out, I used the quiet to listen to God. There were fewer interruptions thanks to the quiet. Let us not fear the quiet, but run to it.
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May 2023
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