Come into the Quiet…
It is loud out there in the world – busy, full, it fills up your senses as soon as you step outside. There’s barely time for a breath. Our minds constantly frazzling and burning out from the overload of information before we even leave out front doors.
There is so much out there now on resting, entering the quiet place and slowing down from what is a very hurry-orientated world. Yet what if it goes even deeper than that – what if you struggle to be who you are called to be in such a overwhelming world.
I have always been a quiet person and then I later on discovered terms to describe this quietness, introvert, INFJ and lately I discovered that I am an Enneagram Four. All these terms and labels might give some temporary relief to understanding the complexities of who God has made me to be but still sometimes there is that nagging voice inside who shrinks at this quietness.
This quietness has sometimes led me to some unhealthy places, anxiety, in particular social anxiety, agoraphobia, depression as I find myself growing ever more uncomfortable with the loudness of the world.
Another terrible ‘adult’ habit I have fallen into of late is the ‘to-do lists’ that ravage and tear down the quiet place. Your mind in a convulsion of too many jobs, too many responsibilities and not enough of you to do it all.
Yet the quiet place is both a Kingdom and a Creative calling. It is in the quiet that Jesus makes Himself known to us. It is the quiet that we finally lay it all down even those things that we may have been hanging on to by the very tips of our fingers.
God has made me a quiet soul but too often I have fought against it, looking around at others, comparing myself to them or worse trying to pretend that I’m different. I have too often fought against the quietness and yet it is what my soul needs.
I am reminded of a Bible verse that used to be so dear to me when I was an early Christian in Matthew:
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.”
Matthew 7:13 ESV.
This verse leads me to think again about the quiet place which too often feels like an off the beaten path which does not always appear inviting at first but which our souls feel drawn towards.
It sometimes seems lonely, or hard to travel in the quiet places. To wander on paths of solitude but Jesus knew that it is there that we will find life and life to the full.
To be a Kingdom Creative we need the quiet. We need to let ourselves be invited by Jesus to come into his quiet paths today. It is there that we will share with Him and from that place we can share with the loud and busy world.