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For God alone,
O my soul,
wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
Psalm 62:5 ESV
Hello Girlfriends!
How is life in your little part of this world? Are you enjoying peace and quiet this weekend? Are you out amongst the crowds at a mall, in a restaurant, or on a bus full of energetic teenagers traveling across country on a class trip? (For those ladies on the bus, my heart goes out to you, and surely you will be rewarded extra chocolate in heaven for your sacrifice! See you tomorrow in DC!)
Turn Off the Noise
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
Can I share a secret with you, one that my husband says is weird and I should not tell? I am still in my Friday pajamas at 9:30 pm on Saturday night. While a few of you may be shocked, I know for a fact that my true girlfriends out there are extremely jealous and want my life today. (You know who you are, and I love you so much that I would willingly trade a day with you, but suggest you bring your own pj's--I'm rocking the Minnie Mouse polar fleece bottoms with a pink hoodie. Not every girl can pull off this look!)
Today was one of those lazy winter days, sitting around the house reading and relaxing. At least, I was following that plan. My son however, in typical fourteen year old boy fashion, rolled out of bed and into the family room around noon, promptly blaring some cable programming from the surround sound. After calling his name five or six times so that I could request the television volume lowered, I noticed the noise canceling headphones on his ears, attached to an ipod. How did I miss that fact considering when I stopped hollering, I could hear nearly every word and beat from across the room? So much noise! Suddenly, I discovered my husband had also at some point plopped down in the family room, but he was too immersed in something on his ipad to notice me screaming at the top of my lungs at our son. Boys. Men. How do they successfully and consistently tune out the rest of the world and focus on only one thing? I could have hopped up on the table and started my own Harlem Shake, and I do not think they would have even batted an eyelid. (Lord knows I was wearing the proper attire for such a dance!)
Calling my husband by name, and I mean his first name and not something more colorful, I finally got some attention and had them turn the television down. After all of that effort, I swear I was ready for a nap! But instead, I immersed myself once again in my reading, soon losing track of time and my surroundings--an indication of a good author! Abruptly, loud sound boomed from the television once again, shaking me out of my story and back to the kitchen table. Can't a girl in her pajamas just get some peace around here for a couple of hours?
Once again I called out for my son to turn it down. Once again I got no response. As aggravated as a mama bear awakened from her mid-winter slumber, I pushed back my chair and stormed the living room only to find it void of any male life whatsoever. No husband. No son. Only the Discovery Channel screaming at me through the Smart TV. I grabbed the first remote I saw, scanned it for the MUTE button, which I pushed emphatically while shaking the entire unit at the tv, then the cable box, then the speaker base. No dice. Fuming, I threw pillows around on the couch until I uncovered another remote, which I also directed at the tv stand while mashing the button with a line across a little speaker. Still Mike Rowe's voice continued to reverberate off my walls. Spying a little black corner peeking out from under the coffee table, I drop to my knees and extract yet another remote from its hiding place. MUTE. MUTE. MUTE. No response. Still on my knees, I begin to pray, "God, please do not let my hand swing forward and please do not let this remote go flying from it into the television screen. Please, just shut Mike Rowe up. Please." Then I remembered...we have a smart tv. My son is constantly yelling, "Cancel" at the tv whenever the sound sporadically turns off during a show. It works for him.
So, I crawl across the room on my knees, speaking nicely to the television...."Mute." "Mute." MUte." I am inching closer. Maybe it cannot hear me. "MUte." "MUTe." Now I am losing it and I am directly in front of the tv, red-faced, out of breath, carpet burn on my knees, shrieking "MUUUUUTE!!!" at an inanimate object. Smart TV my foot. If it were so smart, I would be able to reach out, turn a knob or push a button, and voila, silence. Instead, I have to knee walk my way back to the sofa and decipher which remotes turn off which electronics and how. After an exasperating fifteen minutes, I fall back into my chair at the table and finally relish the sound of silence.
And then the dog begins to snore....
God's Mute Button
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39 NIV
Girlfriends, hours later on the same Saturday, I am sitting here at my computer contemplating my Mute fiasco. Jesus makes it look so easy when He wants peace and quiet. I mean, He got up. I got up. He rebuked the waves. I rebuked the television, and the remotes, and the speakers, and Mike Rowe (sorry Mike). He said, "Quiet! Be Still!" I said, "Mute" and "MUTE" and "Muuuute!" and maybe some other words. For Jesus, the wind died down and was calm. For me, the noise did not die down, and I did not have calm until I completely lost control and turned everything off. Ahhhh, maybe that is God's point to me. I wanted silence so I could concentrate, hear my thoughts, focus on the words on the page, contemplate without outside distraction. God wants the same for us as well, and we have to give up the controls and turn down the volume.
“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong." Job 6:24
Ladies, our world is so full of noise, drowning out the One true Voice we need to hear constantly in our lives. I cannot help but wonder if God is pointing a remote at us and mashing the MUTE button, but by our own will, we are not answering. Like my smart tv, we "smart" humans do not always respond as we are created to do. Much of the time, we think we have life under control and know the words to say. We think we are writing the script, directing the show, amassing the rewards. Truly, God will teach us the right way, show us where we have been wrong, if only we will be quiet. Stop talking. Stop listening to the wrong sounds. Cancel out the noise and hear Him. This is my prayer for you today...silence. peace. quiet. (And if it is enjoyed in your pajamas, all the better!) Listen...the Lord your God has something to say to you. Be silent.
And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26 ESV
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Psalm 37:7
