Years ago, when our oldest grandson (now 13) was just 5 years old, my wife and I took him with us to a shopping mall in Myrtle Beach, where our family was vacationing. The mall – which now is closed, I’m sad to say – featured an indoor carousel that, not surprisingly, our grandson wanted to ride. A 50-cent ticket can buy a lot of happiness for a youngster. He picked out the horse he wanted to ride, and as the carousel readied for its circular journey, I noticed that our grandson was the only child on the merry-go-round. Afraid that he would not want to ride alone, I said to him, “Buddy, do you mind being the only person on the carousel this time around?” He quickly replied, “It’s okay, I can use the peace and quiet.”
Don KirklandPeace and quiet are harder to come by these days, especially in a culture that values noise (or sound, in the best of cases) over quiet, that rare commodity that encourages introspection, prompting us – and even prodding us – to turn our thoughts inward to allow the self-examination required of any Christian pilgrim intent on making progress on life’s spiritual journey.
Gardner Taylor, now 88 years old, the former pastor of Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y., is on practically every list of America’s greatest contemporary preachers. An article about him carried recently by Religion News Service mentions that Taylor, while still keeping busy, also now gives more time than he did previously to a practice that Alexander McLaren, a 19th century British pastor, called “sitting silent before God.”
“This is not praying. It is not reading. It is just opening oneself,” the RNS story quoted Taylor as saying. “It’s a mystic kind of thing. But we do so little of it, and we who preach are likely to engage ourselves in so many things and neglect that aspect of being open to what God has to say. I wish to heaven I had practiced this more early on in my ministry.”
An article in the Aug. 14 edition of Newsweek magazine about Billy Graham (“Pilgrim’s Progress” is the title of the story) points out that the evangelist, who is 87 years old, said how important he believes it is for Christians especially to “sit still for a few minutes a day” and think deep thoughts about a God whose “ways and means are veiled from human eyes and wrapped in mystery.”
“There are many things that I don’t understand,” the article quotes Graham as saying.
Harold Seever, a former pastor of Dolphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala., who also served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Florence a number of years ago, had a saying that is worthy of remembering – and practicing. “When you can improve on silence,” he often said, “speak.”
I am accustomed to, and most of the time welcome, the melodies (especially ’50s and ’60s stuff) coming from my car radio, the clamor of traffic in the city, the tree toads and even the crickets in the country, the roar of the crowd at football games (when my team is winning), the hum of Indy cars heading down the backstretch at that expanse of asphalt and brick in Indiana, the laughter (and too often the fussing) of grandchildren, the book on tape that can transform a long day on the interstate into a time of intellectual enlightenment – the list could go on.
Still, I must realize that, for my own good spiritually and emotionally, there must be periods of quiet when the “still, small voice” of God can be heard.
My grandson was right. I, too, can use the peace and quiet.