That\u2019s what my husband replied to me after a few days at home under hospice care. I wanted to delve into what he must be thinking when he thoughtfully and slowly opened and closed his eyes. I thought maybe he was already seeing his mansion in heaven along with his loved ones waiting for him there. I asked him about it. After my many words and vowing that if he wanted us to keep standing strong for a miracle, I would stand strong with him. I asked, \u201cSo, sweet man, what are you thinking?\u201d And, his reply: \u201cShhh! You talk too much!\u201d He wanted to embrace the sound of silence\u2026..not this sound gab!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll be sharing more about it later, but just an fyi — I am an Election Official Clerk during the Early Voting period and then on Election Day. My co-workers and I can get quite rowdy when a first-time voter (and there have been many) comes through the line. We celebrate them with cheers and clapping. But, usually, while voters are filling out their ballots with seriousness and attention to the details, it can be incredibly quiet in the large room. Yesterday, I said to my co-poll worker \u2013 it\u2019s like a library in here! I\u2019m sure those pondering the choices on their ballots appreciate the quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quiet \u2013 I read an article about the science of quiet. The very fact that there is field of science dedicated to quiet sure tells how noisy our world has become. It\u2019s hard to tune out the voices of others, the call of social media, and the constant demands to do more and be more. There\u2019s something to be said for God\u2019s words: \u201cBe still and know that I am God.\u201d (Psalm 46:10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever tried to quiet a loud room? Attempting to yell above the crowd usually doesn\u2019t work. It\u2019s far more effective to hush the crowd with a \u201cshhh\u201d. I think that was God\u2019s method when my sweet husband said those \u201cShhh. You talk too much!\u201d words. God\u2019s whisper quiets us, calms us, stills us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I read that the \u201cwhite noise\u201d of the world might be the greatest obstacle to our spiritual growth. Apparently, \u201cwhite noise\u201d is a sound that contains every frequency a human can hear. And because it contains every frequency, it\u2019s difficult to hear any frequency \u2014 especially the still, small voice of God. That\u2019s how we forget that God is God. And it takes little to distract us. \u201cI neglect God and his angels, for the noise of a fly.” said the English poet John Donne<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simply put, God often speaks loudest when we\u2019re quietest. Lord, please help us yearn for your still small voice that will encourage us, calm us and soothe our are very noisy lives. If we want to hear the heart of God, silence is the key. If we want the Spirit of God to fill us, then we must be still.\u201d
We want to hear Your whispers louder than the noise of the world surrounding us. Speak, Lord, your servants are listening! Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That\u2019s what my husband replied to me after a few days at home under hospice care. I wanted to delve into what he must be thinking when he thoughtfully and slowly opened and closed his eyes. I thought maybe he was already seeing his mansion in heaven along with his loved ones waiting for him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18935,18936,18937],"tags":[18930,1210,1769,18927,18929,40,2609,18928,18932,6499,18931,7983,16236,18933,4666,7073,18934],"class_list":["post-13361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quiet","category-science-of-quiet","category-white-noise","tag-ballot","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-election-official","tag-gab","tag-inspiration","tag-john-donne","tag-library","tag-loud-room","tag-quiet","tag-science-of-quiet","tag-shhh","tag-speak-lord","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-still-small-voice","tag-talk-too-much","tag-white-noice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13363,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13361\/revisions\/13363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}