COME TO THE QUIET

“Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your

own hands…That you may walk honestly toward them that are

without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.”

I Thessalonians 4:11

I am drawn to the quiet life, the meditative life, the life outside of the camp where the tent of God is pitched.  I am drawn to the simple life, the life with a lot of empty space, not waiting to be filled but intentionally left empty and spacious.

I love God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit with all my heart, mind, and soul.  I desire to dwell in God’s Presence all the days of my life.  The quandary I deal with regularly in my wake with God is that I find such conflict with Institutional Christianity and Church.  I have tried to fit my faith into that form and mold and have failed at every try.  At times I thought it was my fault.  At times I thought it was the Institution’s fault.  I am tired of trying and tired of trying to find fault.  I just want to live a simple and quiet life in the Presence of God, His Son, and His Holy Spirit.

What can I study to be quiet?  Nature is quiet; mindfulness and meditation is quiet, bringing inner awareness; working with my hands is quiet, either creating things that are functional to use or creating things that are beautiful to admire.  Seeing life and work as sacred helps me honor time as sacred.  I am a part of any process I put my mind and hands into.  There is a give and take of energy that prevents me from becoming exhausted and provides me with enrichment. 

There is a flow of life energy in stillness.  I have felt that life energy while walking in an ancient forest, while sitting in a canoe on an undisturbed lake, and while observing an empty field.  Life is growing and transforming, yet all is silent and still.  Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth is entering into the stillness of life and connecting with the energy that comes from God, the same energy that created all of life; that created me.

 I am drawn to the quiet life, the meditative life; the life lived outside of the camp where God dwells.  That is where I feel most at home and most at peace and that is where I study to be.  My business is loving God with all my heart, mind, and soul; obeying God with all my heart, and loving my neighbor, which in reality is everyone, as myself.  The cares of the world, of Christianity, and of the Church are God’s business, not mine.  He knows in fullness; I know only in part.  I am called to pray for the things of God not criticize or try to correct them. 

“God is in heaven and you are on earth,

So let your words be few.”

Ecclesiastes 5:2