SILENCE

The first day of school this year for my youngest son started with him in the middle of a shower when suddenly the power went out quite unexpectedly!  I guess kind of fortunately, he didn’t have shampoo in his hair when that happened; instead it had to be a “no shampoo” day for him!  Our house has a well for water, not city water, so when the power goes out we do not really have water either! Not the best way to start the school year but it ended up much better than six years ago when our area experienced a flood that afternoon and was without electricity for 5 days. This time it was only a few hours.

 

The experience for me is as follows: Glancing at the clock, I thought..Okay, I have a few more minutes before I should make sure my son was up timely for the first day of school so I laid my head back down on my pillow for a few minutes. When I looked at the clock again all I could see was darkness–no numbers lit up! It was really strange because two minutes before it was working just fine. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me being too bad to focus but then I realized the power went out!

All of a sudden the stillness of silence was noticeable. Everything was just silent….no noise of anything electrical running, no music, not a peep.

 

I was thankful that the power outage prediction was only for a few hours, which did ring correct, but I did get my “how to start the generator” lesson just in case the power was out longer than they predicted. Yes, we purchased a generator after that flood six years ago and fortunately have not really had to use it!

What are the chances the deafening silence occurred again a few hours later as a friend and I were at the local coffee shop?  The silence was very noticeable there as suddenly the lights went out, the TV was silent, all the machines stopped working no longer making their usual noises.

 

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Can you recall a time when you lost power and suddenly everything was just silent?  Isn’t pure silence kind of eerie?

 

I think we are so used to always being busy, hearing car engines, air conditioners, electronic devices and the list goes on and on that it is kind of scary to hear nothing.

As I observed and thought about how everything was suddenly so silent, I couldn’t help but think that….

Only God was still there!  Yes, only He is present in the deafening silence!!

 

Photo courtesy of Leonard J Matthews under Creative Commons License (CC BY-ND 2.0)

 

In the deafening silence, can you “sense” the Lord?

 

…Can you HEAR the stillness of the Lord’s presence whispering to you?

 

…Can you FEEL the Lord’s presence all around you?

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  –Colossians 1:17  (NIV)

 

…Can you TASTE the goodness of the Lord’s presence?

Taste and see that the Lord is good…..  –Psalm 34:8  (NIV)

 

…Can you SEE the beauty of the Lord’s presence?

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.  –Psalm 19:1  (NIV)

 

…Can you SMELL the fragrance of the Lord’s presence?

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  –Ephesians 5:2 (NLT)

 

 

Photo courtesy of Leonard J Matthews under Creative Commons License (CC BY-ND 2.0)

 

This week take a few more moments to cherish the silence and find the Lord’s presence!

 

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  –John 10:27  (ESV)

Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  –Psalm 139:7-10  (NIV)