The Gift of Quietness

Quiet is definitely a gift from God. Sometimes when we speak of the state of something, we put the adverb "perfectly" in front of it...as in "perfectly" beautiful, or "perfectly" delicious...or "perfectly" quiet. It's perfectly quiet in our home for the moment...and it is perfect. Oddity of oddities that I somehow find myself at home alone this beautiful Saturday afternoon, and it's quiet - it's perfectly quiet.

There's not a TV going, no stereos or IPod's playing, and none of the phones have rang for at least an hour. The only sound that breaks the nearly total silence is the quiet hum of the ceiling fan over my head. It's so quiet that even the pressing of the keys on my laptop seem to be almost intrusive. Cooper the very spoiled dog is sound asleep in the chair, and Alli the supreme ruler of any space she's occupying at the moment cat, is in a near comatose state on the couch. It is q-u-i-e-t, and it is perfect.

It's never like this around the Shearon mothership. There's always something going on around here that creates noise of some type. I'm sure it's like that in your abode as well. We just live in a very loud, busy, world. Not saying that's right or wrong - bad or good - but quiet is definitely good.

But this day has brought about some sort of great harmonic convergence in the solar system...and there is not a soul at home save me...and it is quiet. It's amazing how easy it is to think once your brain has been exposed to quietness for just a little while...when there's nothing else audibly competing for your attention. And your hearing? Wow! Your hearing is so keen when it's this quiet. Every little sound makes itself known. It's been a long time since I've heard things this loud and clear! All because it's quiet...perfectly quiet.

Makes me think - no wonder I sometimes feel like I have a hard time hearing God. By way of confession, sometimes...okay, okay...often times, it's because I'm just not listening like I should. But often times, even when I'm trying to listen, God's voice gets drowned out by the cornucopia of sounds and noise that bombard me almost every moment of every day. God's spirit is always a gentleman, and He never screams, so it's up to me to listen...even if it means I have to do some very intentional noise reduction in my life to hear Him. It brings to mind that I have spent so much time preaching to my kids over the years about their "quiet-time" with God - all the while acting like because I'm an adult, and I'm busy, and I have a lot of "stuff" to do, it's somehow okay that I often times neglect that spiritual discipline myself.

God re-teach me the importance of being still and getting quiet before you every single day. Help me purposely tune out all the other "noise" of my day, if only for a few minutes, so that I can hear you speak.

Yes indeed, this has been nice...this quietness...this perfect quietness.

But hey, gotta run, someone just knocked on the door and the phone is ringing!