Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Lenten Challenge, Day 15: Hear

Shhhh.

Do you hear that?

I'm having a moment of silence.

In this world full of things screaming at us all day long to BUY ALL THE THINGS, TWEET ALL THE THINGS, FACEBOOK ALL THE THINGS, I have to stop myself every once in a while and just listen. Just be still. Just be.

It's one of my favorite things about snow. It's so quiet. In fact, the weathermen calling it a "snowstorm" seems incredibly oxymoronic to me. A storm is loud. It's thunder, and pelting rain and lightning strikes. But snow? There's something so beautifully silent and soft about a snowfall. You hear nothing, but somehow, can't help but pause to listen anyway.
The older I get, the more filled with chatter my life becomes, and the more I realize how important silence is. Last year, I gave up the radio/music/iPod in my car for Lent. It gave me 30 precious minutes of silence on my way to and from work every day. It gave me time to think, time to pray, time to start and end my day with a quiet, steadied soul.

Even a year later, when I find myself becoming overwhelmed with ALL THE THINGS, I go back to those moments of silence--in the car, in the snow, holding a sleeping baby--and I pause to breathe in the silence.

Shhhh.

Do you hear that?

It's my soul at peace.




1 comment:

Stephanie Mutert said...

Awesome! It made me think of one of my favorite Christmas song 'Winter Snow' by Audrey Assad...'but you came like a winter snow, you were quiet, soft, and slow, falling from the sky in the night to the earth below.'

Then you KNOW I LOVE snow...so peaceful. I always have those poignant moments in the van to the orphanage when there is snow on the ground...the irony of the snow verses the orphan life.