I don't mean to nitpick, but I'm deciding that the words silence and stillness and quiet and rest aren't necessarily interchangeable. And that's a good thing for many of us, because...
if we have to wait for silence or even quiet to find a place of rest inside, a lot of us are in big trouble.
(Which might be true anyway.) Because our world is a very noisy place, because MY world is a very noisy place.
Take today.
I was really looking forward to some garden time this afternoon. This blog post has been brewing for awhile and I wanted to complete the "steeping" process in the quiet of my "happy place" as I weeded and puttered and scattered grass clippings along the recently emerged green beans.
Oh.
Grass clippings.
Produced by a lawn mower. A very noisy lawn mower.
Well, yes, that did interfere with the quiet I was hoping for...
Eventually, that porch is going to be a lovely place to savor a cup of coffee in the stillness of a misty morning.
But not yet.
So, , yes, it was a little hectic.
Youngest zoomed about in his big green machine, determined that all the grass would be the same length at the same time, which meant a lot of things were in his way. (And he has learned that he can finish tomorrow. Or Friday.) And although the carpenter wore ear protection when those metal posts needed trimmed, I did not.
Quiet it was not.
I had to chuckle. God must surely have a sense of humor, as He knew my plans to ponder quietness in a quiet place.
But I did notice something. Even with the racket, I was (uncharacteristically!!) quiet inside. It was, somehow, okay.
I've been struggling with this thought all week, that if we must have utter stillness to hear from God, great blocks of quiet to find a place of rest inside, most of us don't have a chance because even with our best efforts, the world is a noisy place.
But God still speaks.
To me.
In spite of the noise.
In the noise.
Even THROUGH the noise.
He is reminding me that I can't always wait for actual quiet to find stillness within,
that sometimes the world around me will be very very loud,
yet I can still find a path to the quiet place within me.
He urges me, "Be still and know that I am God."
Regardless of my surroundings, regardless of the din of the day, the clamor of my circumstances,
I can be still,
He is still God,
and I can trust that He is at work within me, around me.
Even when I think I cannot hear a word, I can see His work, and know that He is God and He is good.
noiselessly,
the flower bloomed, the tomato ripened,
I was still,
and He is God. Still.
And I still am -HumminB.