Silence and Stillness

Silence.  Stillness

When you think of those words, what do you feel?  Relief?  Tension?  Uneasy?  Peace?  Desire to have, or the need to run far from anything resembling them?

In our loud and busy world, silence and stillness are something we tend to forget about, and on a rare occasion when we do have a moment of complete silence, I have noticed it can make many people uneasy, they don't know how to just sit and be still in silence and enjoy the peace that surrounds them.  

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10  I would say that is a pretty strong statement.  If we are running around, filling our heads with continual media outlets, always connected to social media, gaming, noise, we can't be still.  According to this verse, stillness equals knowing God.  To me, that makes sense because if our minds are always busy, always connected, how can it be quiet and focused on anything.  Instead, it becomes numb because we put it on overload, we don't think, we don't read, we don't put down the phones, computers, tablets, or shut off the TV, to just be, to reconnect with ourselves, our loved ones, and God.  If we did disconnect for a day, we would realize how absolutely exhausted our minds truly are because they were not designed to have continual noise and input.  They were designed to rest.

"We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence.  We need silence to be able to touch souls."   ~Mother Teresa 

We all need to get some silence and stillness in our lives, to disconnect and reconnect with ourselves, and God.  The more we clutter our brains with social media, gaming, TV, noise, the less we know how to think logically because we are being influenced by all the voices going in our head on a continual basis.    The more we fill our heads with noise, the less we hear the beauty of creation-birds singing, children laughing, the wind howling, waves crashing into the shoreline.  The busier we are, the less we notice beauty..sunsets, flowers, eagles soaring, the beauty in a smile. When we quiet the noise and still the busyness, we can see and appreciate God's creation, we can think clearly, and we can connect with others and with God.

Take some time and put in your schedule time for YOU.  Time for you to disconnect.  Turn your phone off, or leave it somewhere away from where you are.  Leave all devices that connect you to noise behind.  Take time to just sit and be quiet.  Time to listen.  Time to observe beauty.  Time to connect with loved ones, and with God.  During this time, don't go over your to do lists, just sit and be still.  Look around and find the beauty that God has placed around you.  It's not easy at first, it can actually be uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.  

We all need this in our lives.  I disconnected some last week, not completely, but took some aspects of social media away, and I must say I really enjoyed it.  I had more time, so much more time.  I read a book.  I thought.  I wrote. I was quiet.  I enjoyed the beauty of creation. I found some of the creative outlets that being over-connected shuts down in us.  I spent time with loved ones.  I chose to do it.  I chose to disconnect.  It is a choice.  It's worth it.