day 672: Quiet

"...Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. "

I was recently on a train where the quiet car was full. Not long after that I checked out the quiet sections of a couple of airport airline lounges. They weren't full but they were well populated. The truth of the matter is that we are running out of places to be peaceful and quiet. The last bastion of being unconnected was the airplane cabin but even now with Go-Go Inflight that quiet and unconnected spot is disappearing. We are now at risk of being connected 24-7 and the only thing keeping us from being always on and always working is our own self-discipline (hard), the disapproving words of our family, friends, and loved ones (hard to hear), or the boundaries that the boss/company would put on us to not always be ready to work at all times (hard to believe). There is no such thing as a true vacation any longer. Few are able to truly vacate for the entire time. The weekend before going back to work turns into the time of catch-up or each day we find ourselves checking in. We haven't any idea what the long-term ramifications will be of this heightened level of working, but I suspect it won't be good and that there will be some form of backlash that will be hard to reconcile. We may already be seeing some of it from the people who have been doing double or triple the amount of work they did three years ago who are now looking for their next job because they feel understaffed and/or underpaid and under appreciated. If we have any any influence at all over the constant and increasing work "noise" level that is happening then let's think long and hard about how we modulate what we can. Some quiet time and lessened noise would be a good thing.

We are told many times in the Bible that we need to get quiet and still to hear God's voice speaking to us. It is in the quiet times that we can know that He is God! We are challenged to get away from others and commune with God in our own quite times and personal places. Isaiah says that in God's rest and quiet we can find our confidence and strength. Today, let's be sure that we have found some quiet time with God. This can be through our Bible reading time or our prayer time. Just take a part of today and let that be the quiet that we can listen for God and let Him renew us for the next crazy and loud time that is coming.

Reference: Isaiah 30:15 (New Living Testament)