This is a hard thing ... think about it. When we get up it's usually the same ...  The radio, the news, the weather. No stillness... all our input is from, and about, the stuff and things of man... News anchor people relaying to me what someone else says is important. With great enthusiasm. Looks good... everybody's talking about it... I need to know this ! Not really. 

    It can go on that way all day long ! 

    In the car, it's usually no different ... I'm lucky, one vehicle doesn't have a stereo, and on the other my antenna's broke ... I get more silence than maybe the average person. And it pays off.

    At work, it might be the same thing... a barrage of information, gossip, etc. Time for everything but my own soft, still "heart" messages, and longings ... and God's still, soft voice.     

    The habit, or even compulsion can be upon arising to immediately open our input channels to everything, anything, to avoid the silence. And it goes on like that until we close our eyes for bed. To know "things". To increase our value, or identity... perhaps even in someone else's eyes at times. To know someone else's business. It seems everybody thinks they need to know something about anything, or everything that's brought up. I've kinda grown to like the times I say 'I don't know'. Or maybe 'I don't care'.

    I have a little plaque I got one day long ago... it pictures a nice little butterfly on a twig, and says "Listen to the stillness ... GOD is at work!"  I just love that ... it says it all for me. 

Find a place and listen to Me...

 Listen for Me. 

Watch for Me.

Feel for Me.

  Those who seek Me will find Me ... 

Listen to the stillness... it's more valuable than your assorted "stuff"

       Look at a blade of grass, or a leaf... one blade, or one leaf.  Hold it in your hand.  All the greatest scientists in the world, combined, can't do that !  One day I realized that even a blade of grass can humble me... thank God.

    Do we have the right to demand our stillness ...    to be free of someone else's noise ...   

    I believe so. We can certainly make the choices that afford us the opportunity for stillness, and the choices to avoid "the noise". The relentless input of man, of the world ... information, information, information. noise, noise, noise... my peace of spirit, and grounding, is more valuable to me than information, or current events, or certainly, gossip.  : )   

Things About Stillness You May Not Know

    Missing the boat :  I've been in prayer groups, sweat lodges, etc., places where the general idea is to promote a "spiritual" environment, but there was a constant outpouring of man's energy, words,  expectations, ego ... never allowing room for God's Spirit to be felt, heard, etc. I can remember saying 'Can we just be quiet for a while?' ... It didn't last long. Too uncomfortable I guess.  

    I learned once from a therapist that whatever a person does, at the bottom of it is "what we want". Especially a repeated behavior. The "noise" can do these things for us :    

• Squelch feelings
• Allows us to avoid true connection / interaction / vulnerability with others.
• Override the heart's soft messages.
• Override the Spirit of God's soft heart messages.  

The "opposites" :

    It seems that "knowing God" is often doing, or allowing for, the opposite of our human instincts and inclinations. And often the opposite of the status quo, or majority opinion of the "world". It's like I'm in a fight ... I have to force time for stillness, force the choices which "follow God's way" rather than the more common, and more socially acceptable, ways of the world. "Fighting" for stillness in my life!  Ugh, sickening, but true. And of course, there's the ever present "what somebody thinks" problem ! 

 : )  

• Listen to your heart, not your head.
• Walk away from the noise, the information, the gossip.
• I admire people who can be still. Who can be independent. Who have the courage to be different. 
• The difference in the outward trappings of  busyness and true soul satisfaction is very great!

• Are you teaching your kids that busyness is a top priority ?  Try being still with them... sit on the steps, in the woods, in the living room... just be with them and be still ... give your heart & emotions time to be heard & felt. 

• Do what God puts in your heart, not what people put in your head.