26-Aug-14

Justice will rule in the wilderness
and righteousness in the fertile field.
And this righteousness will bring peace.
Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever.
My people will live in safety, quietly at home.
They will be at rest. Isaiah 32:16-18It was 1950, in Oklahoma City.  I held the cymbals and crashed them together making a horrendous noise that eliminated all thought.  I watched the row of rests and wondered if the next cymbal crash would come just on time as I kept my eye on the conductor.  In another song I alternated a low boom on the bass drum with a cymbal crash with the same drum stick.  There were no rests, just a continuous rhythmic cacophony until the song ended.  The deafening silence afterward surprised me.Our lives are lived with continuous and increasing sounds as we isolate ourselves behind the  beeps and buzzes.  Our ears are tuned to constant and continuous sounds of television and radio.  Progress is achieved with large machines much louder than a timpani or bass drum.  Our attention span grows ever smaller.  We cannot concentrate on hearing God.Is it any wonder that we are refreshed listening to the sounds of nature as they worship their Creator?  The rippling of a stream tripping across the small stones, the birds populating the trees with melody, the clapping of the mountains, the rhythmic waves of the ocean reaching shore.  The laughter of children at play, not yet captured by what we call progress.“Let all that I am wait quietly before God...”  Oh, I have an important call, the news is on, there is a ball game I want to catch, I need to get my nails done…interrupt that reverie with God.  “For my hope is in him….”  Except for who will win this game, why do we have stupid people in the world, why aren’t they like me, that new dress will create a new me.Help us to remember, Lord, to know, that “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress, where I will not be shaken…”Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken. Psalm 62:5-6