Skip to main content

Quiet and Loud: Not A Matter of Volume?


Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody (I Thessalonians 4:11-12)
            In our age of desperate attention-seeking, overloaded with selfies and status updates, it's a bit of a challenge to consider living a quiet life that wins respect. This might be partly because in our society, there is so little consensus about what quiet person is like, or what is worthy of respect. I value being quiet, but I'm not usually either afraid or reluctant to speak my mind. I want to be invisible, but I feel driven to express what I believe to be truth. As I read through Paul's letters, I find myself concluding that I'm a third rate Paul (OK, I'm not sure I'd rank as high as a third rate.)
            I'm not sure that's what Paul was writing about to the Thessalonians. Over the past couple  years, I've read a couple books on the Civil Rights Movements of the 50s ad 60s. Camelot And The Cultural Revolution argues that the assassination of John F. Kennedy ended one Civil Rights Movement and started another, darker one. I'm not sure the timing is exact, and I'm not sure that the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was not part of what caused that change, but the point is that what started as peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience became violence, and that method remains with  us today. In our society it's about power over others, not power over one-self.
         Is this the difference between quiet and loud? Quiet does not retreat, but it is gentle. Loud may or may not retreat, but it is violent. Quiet would rather work in the garden, loud cannot wait to get to the streets. Quiet spends decades working for end an injustice. Loud loots and destroys. Quiet convinces. Loud shames.  Quiet may be respected. Loud is (at best) feared. Quiet can and will stand alone. Loud is looking for an audience, and is dependent on that audience for support.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more