Stealing Quiet . . . Finding a Center . . . Seeing Him Alone

Here's a song from 40 Days that I really enjoy. The song is "Quiet" by Mark Warren and Joel Warren. Here are the lyrics:

Walk into a crowded room, into a faceless sea
I feel right at home
Remember not to look too close so they won't see through me
They can never know that there's a voice inside my head
Inside my mind
If I could find that secret place
A place to hide

Chorus:
It would be alright if I could stay there for awhile
It would be alright if I could steal the quiet
Deep down I have a need that I cannot deny
It would be alright

I sense you there across the room
A blinding light stills me where I stand
I didn't think you'd come this soon
If I may, if I might find out where I stand
I didn't plan to leave you out for all this time
I took for granted you were here
But if you don't mind

Chorus:
It would be alright if I could stay there for awhile
It would be alright if I could steal the quiet
Deep down I have a need that I cannot deny
It would be alright

I don't know why this song speaks so strongly to me. I think it is the whole idea of stealing quiet.

Finding a center . . . Hunkering down for a moment of peace in a world of white noise.

Brother Lawrence said, "To be with God there is no need to be continually in church. Of our heart we may make an oratory, wherein to retire from time to time and with Him hold meek, humble loving converse." (The Practice of the Presence of God)

Sometimes we need to retire, to separate ourselves into a sort of solitude just to be in the presence of the One who really matters. Thomas Kelly in A Testament of Devotion calls this the process of centering on God. It is the discipline of finding a place to be, a place to just sit with Abba and simply to breathe.

If we make time for this practice, for this centering, for this laser like focus on what really matters, we may well find that God often appears in those times in ways we may not have expected. As Evelyn Underhill notes in Practical Mysticism.

"Because mystery is horrible to us, we have agreed for the most part to live in a world of labels; to make of them the current coin of experience, and ignore their merely symbolic character, the infinite gradation of values which they misrepresent. We simply do not attempt to unite with Reality. But now and then that symbolic character is suddenly brought home to us. Some great emotion, some devastating visitation of beauty, love or pain, lifts us to another level of consciousness; and we are aware for a moment of the difference between the neat collection of discrete objects and experiences which we call the world and the height, the depth, the breadth of the living, growing, changing Fact, of which thought, life, and energy are parts and in which we 'live and move and have our being.'"

I think that sums up the second verse of the song--sometimes we are just jolted out of our activity, out of our busy-ness, out of our mundane existence, and then we have a clarity we have not experienced and maybe cannot adequately express. We see.

We see HIM.

We get IT.

Like the disciples on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8) we sometimes find ourselves in terrifying times, yet in those times we need a fresh vision of Jesus--the One who removes our fear and gives life meaning and direction. Matthew 17:7-8 says "Jesus came up, touched them and said, 'Get up; don't be afraid.' When they looked up they saw no one except Jesus alone." When they faced something they feared, after they fell on their faces terrified, at that point Jesus came and touched them and spoke comfort to them. When they saw "Jesus alone" they were no longer terrified  . . . they were home  . . .  they were comforted. His touch and his voice can have that effect. When the world goes crazy and things seem to spin out of control, that's when we really need to see "no one except Jesus alone." 

So, I need the quiet. I need to get it. I need to crawl into my Father's lap and be shocked into an awareness of how interconnected my world is to His, how his grace overflows in every aspect of my existence, how completely all-encompassing is this One called God. I need Jesus and I need him alone. His touch, his voice, his gracious presence . . . in my worries, my fears, and my anxiety . . .  JESUS ALONE is my need. 

So today, do it! Steal the quiet.

Take the risk and get into God's presence. Get alone with the One who Loves. Get alone with Jesus. 

Let the Mystery and Meaning of life jolt you into the reality of this great grace which sustains us all. Look for opportunities today to raise yourself above the mundane/temporary/overwhelming to that which will never fade. Set your mind to pursue it, and wait for the sheer shock of God's interruption.

We need to steal the quiet. We need to stay there for a while. We need Him. We need Jesus alone.

Thanks for reading!