July 9, 2007

Be Still and Know

OUR VACATION TOOK US to the mountains of Tennessee. We enjoyed the excitement of having the family together. We spent time in the local towns and busy shopping areas where people pushed and noises were plentiful. Car horns honked and vehicles passed by in a rush. The flurry of activity in the town was intense. Line-up of cars at red lights and long lines in stores and restaurants frayed nerves and fragmented conversations.

Not until the evening hour, when the sun was setting in the western sky over the Smoky Mountains, did a hush settle in. Several of us gathered that evening on the back porch of the rented cabin. We laughed and told stories. We talked and shared about our days together. After we all settled ourselves, we began to hear something strange and amazing. It was something we had never heard before in real life. Our quietness revealed the ongoing rhythm of beating drums and mournful singing of Indian voices on the wind. We could not have heard that faint echo had we not quieted our own voices.

Soon afterwards I was reminded that often life is like that. It is the hustle and bustle of this life that drowns out the still small voice of God trying to speak to our hearts. “Be still and know that I am God.”

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)

(By Dr. Donna Gardner, Toccoa, Georgia, TFC Faculty and wife of Dr. Wayne Gardner, TFC President. Taken from the book: Leaves From the Tree God Planted © 2006 by Toccoa Falls College, p. 34-35)