The Serenity of Silence, Solitude, and Stillness
Sharing my thoughts and suggestions for a “serenity summer” previously, I feel the same beckoning within my own soul for the serenity of silence, solitude, and stillness. While summer certainly offers many opportunities for activity, it often invites me into a slower rhythm.
Making time to move more slowly through the longer days of summer pulls the light inward, illuminating the dry and weary places in need of refreshment.
Even if we think we avoid hurrying about our days, they can still feel rushed and haphazard. My personal nemesis, the “To Do List”, badgers me with the urgency of self-imposed faux deadlines.
Leaving me with the impression of real serenity of silence, solitude, and stillness as the proverbial carrot on a stick which I never quite grasp.
But is the true rest of this type of serenity really a destination, or something more?
The Source of Serenity
Despite my best efforts of arriving at “destination serenity”, my frantic posture usually sends me in the opposite direction. Incorporating peace pauses, rest stops, and brief moments of catching my breath only seem to increase my anxiety of failing to get enough done to obtain the rest I so desire.
When you embrace the source of serenity through silence, solitude, and stillness, the weary and dry places are refreshed and made new.
The key then to obtaining the soul nourishment of serenity lies in quiet connection to the source, not in building a highway to get there.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
The perfect peace my soul desperately longs after finds its source in Jesus Christ. Only in Him will I find the sought after serenity. “My world” of striving, pushing, accomplishing, and rushing only serves to move me away from all my soul needs.
Seeking Silence, Solitude, and Stillness
Confidently resting in the source of serenity, requires I walk with Jesus instead of running ahead. Walking at Jesus’ pace means choosing a slower cadence to my days. Even when Jesus walked the earth during His ministry, He never hurried.
The God of the universe had more on His mind and agenda than any of my busiest days, yet He welcomed interruptions, detours, and delays with patience.
I love the premise of Kosuke Koyama’s book, “Three Mile an Hour God” comparing Christ’s way of life on earth with the harried culture in which we now live.
Inviting us into a slower, savoring lifestyle, Koyama says, “‘[God] walks ‘slowly’ because he is love. If he is not love, he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed… It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.”
Unless we pursue silence, solitude, and stillness, true soul rest remains nothing but an elusive dream. But in the presence of these things, the sediment of the daily grind settles, and we find the true source of serenity.
The Serenity of Silence, Solitude, and Stillness
Instead of pretending or hiding in our interactions with people, and many cases God, walking at the “speed of love” reveals God’s love in the circumstances and encounters of my day.
Becoming more present with God, brings more presence and authenticity within my relationships. Choosing to sit in uncomfortable silence, nurtures solitude and stillness, as I release control of my day to God.
As we choose to “be still” with God, we not only learn to know Him more deeply, but we find the complete serenity of being known by an unfailing love.
The serenity of silence, solitude, and stillness is not a destination at the end of a busy day or season of life, it is a manner of living available to us in the middle of it all. In Jesus we find all our weary and dry souls need in the very moment we seek Him.
tell his story link up
I am thrilled to be the new host of Tuesday’s Tell His Story Link up! Jeanne Takenaka and I share the link up on alternate weeks, with Jeanne hosting the first and third Tuesdays, as well as the occasional fifth Tuesday, and my hosting the second and fourth Tuesdays!
Each week we gather here as storytellers, word weavers, and encouragers to make His name known. Our story is God’s story and this small corner of the blogging world, where we come together each Tuesday, needs you.
This is a place where poetry, snapshots, prayers, and stories find a safe spot to nod in agreement that what we have to say matters. I am glad you are here and would love to have you join the #TellHisStory community!
Click over here to read more about the #TellHisStory community and find a button to add to your site.
