Quieted My Soul

Ray Ortlund post:  Quietness before God

“People today are afraid to be alone.  This fear is a dominant mark of our society.  Many now ceaselessly sit in the cinema or read novels about other people’s lives or watch dramas.  Why?  Simply to avoid having to face their own existence. . . .

No one seems to want (and no one can find) a place of quiet — because, when you are quiet, you have to face reality.  But many in the present generation dare not do this because on their own basis reality leads them to meaninglessness; so they fill their lives with entertainment, even if it is only noise. . . .

The Christian is supposed to be very opposite: There is a place for proper entertainment, but we are not to be caught up in ceaseless motion which prevents us from ever being quiet.  Rather we are to put everything second so we can be alive to the voice of God and allow it to speak to us and confront us.”

Francis Schaeffer, “Walking through the mud,” in No Little People (Downers Grove, 1974), pages 86-87.

I have calmed and quieted my soul.  Psalm 131:2