"Take my yoke upon you and learn for me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." -Jesus (Matthew 11:29)
Even alone in my dorm room, there is no quiet. The fan is on its lowest setting, humming and gently sending air circulating around the room. As it turns, post-it notes on the bed post, stray reciepts, open flaps of cardboard boxes all rattle quietly as the fan passes over them. My fingers tap on the keyboard, sometimes fast enough to sound like a steady rain on a window; other times, slow like a dripping faucet. Steven Curtis Chapman's steady guitar strums and plaintive tenor voice drift from the speakers of my laptop. Sometimes, the refridgerator sighs. My suitemates close doors and closets and dresser drawers in their rooms. Outside my window, construction continues on a new building, and sometimes any semblence of silence is destroyed by the insistent banging of a pile driver.
But why do I let music play? Why do I not want to turn off the fan, even if the manufactured breeze is chilly on my arms? Why does the tapping of my laptop keys settle my nerves? Why am I afraid to take all of these sounds away and lie in silence?
What thoughts would find me if I did? What would God say to me if I took the time to be quiet, be still and know that He is God?
I'm not busy at this particular moment in my day. What if I turned off the fan, turned off the music, stopped typing, and simply rested? What would I think of? What would I hear? A pile driver? The movements of my suitemates? A ringing in my ears?
"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." -God (Isaiah 30:15)
Is this a trust issue?
Only one way to find out.
