The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. – Albert Einstein
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. – Bertrand Russell
The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. – Zephaniah 3:17
What does quiet look like to you?
For some, quiet is a vacation away from all responsibility; a moment where they can hear themselves breathe; a chance to reflect and reenergize.
For others, quiet is suffocating. It’s loneliness to their souls and painful to their bones; it’s agony to their minds because unwanted thoughts are exposed – the noise they use as cover isn’t there.
When you are in the midst of waiting, you can often find Quiet waiting with you. It can be frustratingly quiet – you’re waiting to hear from God and you can’t seem to hear His voice; sometimes it’s frustrating in another way; you’re waiting for someone to come home, or someone to call, and it hasn’t happened yet.
I believe that one of the riches we can find in waiting is the treasure of quiet. It is during this time that God can work on our hearts – heart surgery if you will – teaching us and growing us, refocusing our attention on what’s really important.
When I was experiencing our deployment last year, I have to confess that I avoided quiet. I hated the quiet. I stayed as busy as possible, doing as many things as I was humanly capable, to avoid the quiet. That’s what other military wives suggest, anyway, right? Stay busy. Find a hobby. Go back to school. immerse yourself in activity. Anything to keep from having too much quiet time to think and feel the loneliness of your spouse being gone.
There was a problem with this though. I stayed so focused on being busy that I almost took my focus off of God. I wanted to avoid quiet in such a bad way, that I avoided quiet times with God as well. In fact, it got to a point where I hated going to church on Sunday mornings because inevitably, it would get quiet as people took time to pray one-on-one, and the tears would always come. And I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to be strong. But instead of fighting the quiet, I should have embraced it. I know differently now.
Quiet can make us feel more vulnerable. It forces us to think about what’s right in our lives, and what isn’t. I’ve known several people who have been consumed by their jobs; they work sixty or seventy-hour weeks, they’re rarely home at all, they become strangers to their families and I’ve often wondered if they’re not avoiding the quiet – because quiet makes you think and examine the choices you’ve made…and are making.
Only a few years ago I was one of those consumed by my work; consumed by what I did. Even though I recognized what was happening – the hours I spent on work instead of my family – I refused to look at why I was so busy. I rationalized that I was doing what God wanted me to do – something that’s easy for those working in Christian ministry to do – but I know now that God didn’t want me sacrificing friendships for it. Or my marriage. Or my family. Or my health.
I was so consumed in doing, that I almost missed the importance of being.
And that’s where I think the treasure of quiet comes in. Being quiet teaches us to be. When God welcomes us into Heaven after we die, he’s not going to ask for our resume. He’s not going to ask us to spout off our list of accomplishments. I do think He’s going to ask us if we were available. If we listened. If we ever allowed ourselves to be quiet so we could hear from Him.
If you are going through a deployment right now… or any kind of waiting period, let me encourage you to do what I didn’t; embrace the quiet and embrace your Heavenly Father for His comfort, for His love, for His wisdom during this time.
It’s ok to cry. It’s ok to feel weak – impossibly unstrong. We don’t have to be strong. God is strong enough for us.
Make time for the treasure of quiet. Listen to what God wants to say to you. Just be available to what He wants to tell you.
This is one of the riches of waiting.
I pray to God—my life a prayer— and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. – Psalm 130:5
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