Still, Small Voice

Japanese Gardens, Maymont Park.  Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

My mouth chews and savors and relishes truth - 

I can't stand the taste of evil!

You'll only hear true and right words from my mouth;

not one syllable will be twisted or skewed.

Proverbs 8:6-7

I've noticed a very funny thing about human life.  When our children are born, we work and work to teach them to talk.  After we have succeeded, we spend the next two decades wishing we could shut them up.  Talking is such an unbelievably important portion of our lives.  We need to talk about what we think, what we see, what we do, what we want.  It takes years and years for us to learn the value of silence.

When Jezebel was creating havoc for the prophet Elijah, he ran away into the wilderness, sat down, and began to moan and groan about his poor life.  Finally he found his way to a cave, and as he was moping and chattering away, a voice suddenly said, "Elijah!  What are you doing here?"  The prophet started in on his poor-little-me routine, but God interrupted and said, "Hey!  Go stand over there!"  Then the Lord sent a mighty wind that rent the mountain and thundered around the crevices - but God was not in the wind.  Then a huge earthquake broke the stones and rent the earth - but God was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a roaring inferno of fire - but God was not in the fire either.

After the fire dissipated, there came a still, small voice.  And Elijah wrapped himself in his mantle and came to the opening of the cave to have a quiet conversation.  Sometimes it is hard to keep evil out of our mouths when we are in the midst of the stress and pressure of the clamoring world.  We start our tongues wagging and we often lose the power to control what comes out of our lips.  If I am truly going to have only truth and rightness come out of my mouth - with not one syllable twisted or skewed, I am going to have to spend a bit more time in the quiet stillness of God's presence.