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Shhhhh


The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
     I have sung the song based on this verse for years, but it wasn't until I was in a small group study that happened to look at this verse that I made a discovery. In the song, the line is "you will rest in His love." In the New International Version it is "He will quiet you with his love." When I read it I started laughing, then had to explain. What I found so funny was the notion that anyone, including God, could quiet my opinionated, not-afraid-to-open mouth. Even funnier was the notion that anyone, including God, could quiet the gerbil wheel in my head. I meant no disrespect to God. He is omnipotent, and if nothing else, killing me would accomplish at least one of those tasks, but just the idea of me being quiet (especially internally)  is sometimes unimaginable.
      If I think about, it can be a terrifying idea. A friend has commented that she'd like to spend some time in my head. I jokingly said, "the silence is deafening." It's true. A lot of the time there doesn't seem to be anything going on up there, then there are battles blazing, gerbil wheels squeaking - the racket is as bad as the silence. Over time, though, I'm learning that the quiet this verse is talking about is not the silence that deafens, or the silence that feels like death. It's not silence, it's quiet. There's a difference.  Silence is about absence of noise but it can be loud. Quiet is about presence of love.
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Birthday of Winslow Homer

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