Stillness and Quiet
By Tracy Smith
He says, “Be still, and know that I
am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
I am
reading the book, Having a Mary
Heart in a Martha World, and in the chapter titled "Living Room
Intimacy," Joanna Weaver says,
"I constantly fight the
tendency to fill the God-shaped hole he created in me with fluffy stuff…I don't
like quietness so I fill up the silence with sitcoms and talk shows, Christian
music and CNN - - but it was in the quiet of the night that Samuel heard God's
voice" [1]
That's
me. I am the type of person who does not like quiet or stillness. I cannot just
sit at the doctor's office and wait for the doctor without something to
do, so I bring a book to read. I cannot do chores in a quiet house, so I put on
the TV or radio as background noise. I am so bad that if I am watching a TV
show, I will read a book at the commercials to keep the brain busy! I'm most
comfortable when I keep my brain active and engaged.
The
Bible gives us examples of people who heard God's voice when they were still,
when they were quiet. Samuel heard God's voice in the middle of the night when
all was quiet (1 Samuel 3:1-14). Elijah hears the voice of
one of God’s messenger angels when he is discouraged enough to give up, so he lies
down to sleep (1 Kings 19:4-8).
Why am
I unable to just relax the brain and enjoy? I really don't know, but I would
guess that is just the way I am wired. Does that mean that I should not try to
learn to be still? No. In the above verse, God tells us to be still and to know
who He is. What am I missing by not being still and/or
quiet? What would happen if I stopped, kept still and listened to
God? I hope to find out soon!
GOING
DEEPER:
1.
Will you commit to picking a time every day that you focus on being still and
quiet?
2.
What do you use to fill the quiet? What can you do to change that?
FURTHER
READING:
Along with being a wife and mother to two boys, Tracy is
an administrative assistant at Oakwood, serves on the Women’s Ministry Special
Events Team and leads a great group of Junior High girls.
[1] Joanna
Weaver, Having a Mary Heart in a
Martha World (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2007).
