Our Changing World and the Need to Be Still and Know that He is G-d

by Suzanne McCarthy for TCC

Not only is there an information explosion in our day, there is a quiet-time implosion in our day.

My daughter is reading The Little House series to her children as bedtime stories. She remarked at how different the world is now, just a little more than a century after these stories took place. Our food is different, putting much stress on our bodies. People back then were not obese and didn't have Type 2 Diabetes. They ate whole grains, used molasses for sweeteners, had white flour and white sugar very sparingly and as an occasional "treat", didn't have hormone-fed beef and chicken. Often their fruit was limited to what grew locally and an orange was a treat at holiday time. And that is just the food part of things.

People a century ago had quiet time to think as they plowed the fields or harvested or walked to work or to school. Mom's baked cookies without a whirring mixer. The family horse or goat or sheep mowed the lawn!

Do we realize how noisy our world is? In the home, the tv is going, sometimes music is being played in another room while the washing machine swooshes and the dryer whooshes and the dishwasher splishes and the refrigerator hums and the microwave beeps! Outside we hear road noise from the highways and main roads a block or so from our homes, and we listen to the roar of the neighbor's lawnmower even during the dinner hour yet! We hear the loud mosquito-like whine of the neighbor's small motorcycle and the roar of the other neighbor's Harley as they speed up the street past our house. Sometimes we hear a jet flying overhead, or the scream of the firetruck or emergency vehicle or police car.

City folks hear boom-boxes, car stereos blasting, horns honking or the neighbor's tv and stereo adding to the noise of their own homes.

Progress is good, but it has cost us quiet time.

Shhhhh. Be still! Make time, even if only for 10 minutes each day, to be someplace where it is quiet. Take your Bible and a cup of tea. Put your feet up and read. My husband, who is retired, gets up at dawn and goes walking for an hour in a local park. He prays as he walks. A doctor I know reads and prays in his office during lunch time. Sometimes I go out in the yard on clear nights to enjoy some quiet time in G-d's Presence. A Mom I know has her quiet time while the children are napping. Night people often take time just before bed to sit quietly before the L-rd. Some people wake up about 3:00 am for the early watch. Whichever time is best for you, give it to the L-rd and be quietly in His Presence!