Be still...

I am alone at home.  I am sitting peacefully in my bedroom next to an open window.  I marvel at the silence.

Silence has become scarce.  Think about it - when last did you hear nothing other than nature?  I can hear the wind softly moving in the tree outside my window.  Every now and then I hear the rustle of the dried leaves under the tree.  The occasional bird call is beautiful.

We are all desperate for silence.  But we don't find it.  We move from one noisy place to another.

Silence is therapeutic.  But we have become strangers to silence and started to fear it.  We feel uncomfortable in silence.  We always have to have something on - the TV, the radio, the cd player - anything!  Even in our cars, it's music the moment we start the engine.  Anything but silence.

And yet, silence is where you can best hear God's voice.  Simply because you are not focussed on moving pictures across a TV screen or music or some other noise.  Silence has a way of emptying your brain.  At first you have various unrelated thoughts that you have to sift through.  Then eventually, you head quiets down as well.  It's then, that quality time with God becomes possible.  In the stillness you will hear Him.  In the soft breeze, you will feel Him.  No wonder He says in the Psalms: "Be still and know that I am God".

Be still.

Do you have time?  Are you willing to fight the urge for noise?

Come on... try... be still...