I was suppose to meet a friend at the Blue Bird Circle meeting at 10:00 to hear a talk on Batten Disease that the organization is supporting for research. The electricity had gone out once but came on again. I dressed and was writing and watching the time...and before I knew it, I had 15 minutes to get to my spot. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the garage...hit the garage door button and nothing happened. Walked back inside not really realizing that the electricity had gone out again until I saw the clock on the stove blinking...I knew I had already fixed it once. Ok God, I just need you to turn the electricity back on for five minutes so I can get my car out of the garage...I waited a couple of minutes, went back out to the garage to study the situation and wondered how to manually work this deal out.
My car was under where I would need to put a ladder...so with nothing to lose I reached up kind of scaling the bumper of my car and pulled on the red cord that hung from the door....It released immediately...and I was able to raise the door manually...oh but now I had to find something to prop it..the broom was too short....so as I kept on looking around and spotted a pole that my husband uses to change light bulbs on the ceiling...It was expandable...and it worked and I was out of there... only ten minutes late...but still on time as the program had not begun and people were still mingling over coffee and crumpets. I asked God to turn on the electricity instead he turned on my mind to accomplish the goal.
I found out later in the day that the blackouts were intentional. They were instigated in order to prevent a total blackout within other areas....and were an effort to conserve the electricity load that was being demanded during these exceptionally cold days. Blackouts...I thought...there has to be a lesson here! So as I thought a little harder it occurred to me that blackouts are temporary pauses...the lights will come back on...in time! But for while there is "quiet"...the refrigerator stops, the dishwasher stops, the lights are out, the TV is off, the computer shuts down...and we are left in silence....and have to depend temporarily on God's light from the outside....until we access the battery generated lights that we have stored away on our own. We are not generally too comfortable with silence...for we have programmed our lives to noise....and much of the time it is unconscious noise. But when all shuts down and silence enters the room...it does rattle us up a bit. We are forced to "THINK"....and to look around and evaluate what we are going to do next, and how we are going to manage to do it...with the tool of electricity that we are so dependent on. Generally the silence is an inconvenient interruption!
Oh but what if we embraced the silence to be an unexpected and appreciated gift. A time when we had to depend on God's natural "light" instead of the ones we have devised ourselves. Think for a minute about silence...isn't that a time when we are forced to come face to face with who we are and what is going on about us and within us.; it presents us with an opportunity, without distraction to contemplate things that we ordinarily would push aside and try desperately to ignore. I have found also that so many times with silence comes a peace, if we allow it to penetrate into our hearts and souls. For silence is where, I at least, seem to be closest to God. Silence is where I take time to realize HIS truest presence....and come heart to heart with his role in my life. It is through silence that I hear HIS whispers upon my heart and a time when I feel the Holy Spirit taking hold of the prayers that I have submitted on behalf of others as well as myself.
"Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Silence brings about a consciousness that lies buried within us under our world of distractions. A consciousness of life itself...it unpacks deepened concerns, or dreams or prayers that we want God to intervene upon. Too many times we run from silence because if we entertain it we might have to face some giants that are before us...knowing full well that until we face them and expose them, they remain overwhelming and overbearing. It is through silence that I believe that God gives us rest from the fighting of the giants. For silence is where we find the peace of God and realize the presence of his son, Christ.
Silence is in the pauses that we have to make time for. It is the time when we can intentionally blackout the world around us, even if it is just for a few moments. It is a place where we can catch our breathe...and ask God for clarity in/of the issues that are before us. In silence we must not fear our giants...rather submit those monster, lurking, intimidating, distractions to God...and let him bring them down to size....and remove them from their clutching grip on our lives.
Silence is a path that God has structured for us to unleash our deepest fears, submit our deepest desires, proclaim our greatest appreciation for who he is and what he has done in and through our lives through His son, and verify our faith and trust in His sovereignty over all things at all times. Silence is a necessary balance to our world of busyness.
Psalm 23:2
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
Blackouts come to us unexpectedly, when a meeting has been canceled, or the kids have been invited to go on an outing that leaves you alone and quite, or when you come home and have not yet turned on all the media interruptions, or when you finally have time to take a hot bath....when those come your way....embrace them...and when they don't come...solicit them. For it is in the pauses ...the rolling blackouts...the quiet and silent times that God whispers...to each of us and descends upon us his peace that passes all understanding. God is in the silence.
Dear Lord, teach me to embrace the silences that come my way...for that is our greatest meeting place. Amen
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Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!
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