Fresh blankets of snow. Moments by a fire. Cozy vibes all around, right? But when was the last time you allowed a sacred stillness to come? To bring quiet and simplicity to the noise? To sit with a good Father and choose stillness, to choose being in his presence no longer preoccupied with religious activity, but to find yourself enough just by being with him.
Now more than ever distractions and white noise surround us. While life might be full of good and valuable things, there is constant noise. “Buy this, become this, follow your dreams, make 6-figures, look to my latest launch.” It’s all too familiar (or maybe it’s just my feed). In some way, we’ve become prone to it, taking our phones with us everywhere. We start and end our days with our phones in hand.
Yet, our souls and spirit long for quiet. We’re desperate for it.
I look to the life a Zechariah. Upon hearing that his wife Elizabeth is pregnant, his response is laughter and disbelief. Then the Lord provides him with quiet. I wonder what the 9 months of muteness taught Zechariah. I wonder how he learned to hear the Lord’s voice. What beauty came from the silence? How did he bring questions to the Lord? How was communion fostered in a new way? While these are only moments I imagine and nothing we find in the text, I think Zechariah learned more about the Lord in the forced silence than he had in a career of working in the temple.
How will you cultivate silence and stillness this holiday season?
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