God created me with a quiet and gentle nature. He also created me with some creative abilities and developed a concern in me for addressing, in some way, the practical and spiritual issues of urban areas. As a result, I have had to address the issue of why I was not created with a more up front, confident and extrovert personality.
My belief is that the personality and abilities with which God has gifted me are the right ones for the work that he wishes me to do. This is despite the fact that this work often involves me filling positions and roles that are stereotypically associated with more confident and extrovert personalities.
My experience has developed a belief that God places a high value on quietness and an essentially quiet, reflective approach to life. My experience of life at the end of the twentieth century suggests that, both within the church and secular communities, this is an approach that is often overlooked - sub-merged - beneath the brash, the superficial, the good-looking approaches to life.
Quietness and reflection are commonly associated with weakness, hesitancy and inability, yet are qualities and approaches that the Bible fervently recommends. Paul tells the christians at Thessalonica to make it their ambition to live a quiet life (1 Thessalonians 4: 11). Peter praises the unfading beauty of a quiet and gentle spirit, saying that this is of great worth in God's eyes (1 Peter 3: 4). Isaiah condemns the people of Israel
I have a manner of speaking that, I am told, strikes people as hesitant. It includes pauses, unfinished sentences (or sentences that introduce other related thoughts before reaching a conclusion) and an understated manner. People, who have had little experience of working with me, have listened to me and concluded that what they perceive as a hesitancy means that I am unlikely to be an effective leader or manager because I am likely to be indecisive.
In reality my, so-called, hesitancy comes from an ability to see an issue from a variety of differing perspectives, an ability to see the links between a variety of arguments, a refusal to be satisfied with one version of a whole truth. This ability is an enormous strength in leadership and management situations. The ability to see, understand and include differing points of view, to see the underlying unities linking opposed people or organisations, the refusal to accept one dimensional thought and plans are enormously positive in producing genuine teamwork and in achieving real progress.
My manner, which derives from my quiet and reflective personality, is perceived by many to be inadequate but in reality is a strength that many people would benefit from learning. In the same way we need to discover what the Bible says is so good about quietness because it is not something that we automatically or easily see for ourselves.
The quietness that the Bible praises is linked to self control and trust. From these emerge wisdom, beauty and strength.
Self control is a key characteristic of the wise person as described in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. It is also an important fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23). Self control is needed in that we do not speak or act out the first thing that comes into our heads. Fools, in the Bible, are those people who speak and act in haste, without consideration, who do not look before they leap (Proverbs 10: 19, 11: 12 & 13). The wise are those who hold their tongue and then examine the real situation before speaking or acting. They are, therefore, people of discernment and this, too, is connected to the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12: 10 tells us that this is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As with all genuine change the development of self control in our lives is a combination of our aligning our will with the movement and power of the Holy Spirit.
Self control enables us not to leap head first into sin but also to use the moments of quiet that we gain in order to think and, therefore, act as christians in each situation.
Trust is to do with recognising that God meets all our needs and is in himself all we need (Matthew 6: 25 - 34). This becomes for us a great release which enables us to learn patience, another fruit of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah, speaking out of great distress, tells us that it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord (Lamentations 3: 26). Isaiah commends quietness and trust (the two being deliberately linked) to the people of
The result, here, is rest - another word linked to quietness. If God is our shepherd then he will provide us with quiet, with rest and with peace. These will be true for us even if we pass through great difficulty, even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23).
These are not unrealistic ideals but practical possibilities which would change our everyday circumstances were we to implement them in our lives. They result in a wisdom that is both strong and beautiful because it is the wisdom of God. James describes this wisdom to us in concluding his advice regarding the control of our tongues:
... the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. (James 3: 17).
If we have it we become peacemakers raising a harvest of righteousness.
If this quietness is so good for us, and for others, how do we gain it? As with all of God's work there are aspects that only he can do and responses that we must make. God's part is to provide himself for us, in all his fullness. Our part is to partake of him, to taste and see that he is God and to desire nothing else.
What does this mean in practice? We need to make it our ambition, our aim to live quiet lives (1 Thessalonians 4: 11). This involves settling down, working with our hands and earning bread to eat (2 Thessalonians 3: 12), right living (Isaiah 32: 17). It involves organising society and communities in such a way that we have the right conditions for living quiet lives (1 Timothy 2: 2). It involves listening to, obeying God (Proverbs 1: 32 & 33), and learning from God (Proverbs 24: 32). It involves trusting God for those things that we do not understand, becoming still and knowing that he is God (Psalm 131). Each of these involves considering, reflecting, pondering, meditating on our lives, on our circumstances and on God's actions and words.
Our world is a brash, noisy, calamitous, riotous place. This can be because of celebration but is more often because of sin and God's anger towards sin. Quietness is what we find at the end of God's anger. When forgiveness enables us to enter in to God's love quietness is one element of what we gain. God speaks to us then not in the noise of the great and powerful wind, the earthquake or the fire but in the calm after the storm, in a still, small voice, the voice of someone who is so close that he can gently whisper to us (1 Kings 19: 11 - 13).
Our experience of quietness, in its opposition to the noise of the world, is a foretaste of what is to come. At the end of God's anger will be the remaking of the world. The creation of a world of peace and justice. The world described for us in Isaiah 32, a world where the fruit of righteousness is peace, and where the effect of righteousness is quietness and confidence for ever (v 17).
The quietness which the Bible commends to us is not simply a physical absence of noise, or a regular period of prayer and/or meditation. It can include all of these but is also to do with lifestyle and our engagement with the world and our communities. It is a practical life exemplified by quiet which involves our work and our relationships as well as our prayer life. It is vital that we understand this as we think about reflection because it is so easy to restrict reflection just to specific, defined periods of prayer, meditation, study or retreat. Each of these are good but by themselves are only a partial experience of God's quiet life.
God condemns people who do not reflect on the life that they lead. The book of Isaiah begins with the statement that his people do not consider (1: 3), a statement that is repeated again in 5: 12, 44: 19, and 57: 1. Deuteronomy 32: 28 & 29 paints a picture of a nation without sense, a nation that does not consider and therefore lacks discernment.
The Bible is full of encouragement to reflect. The words, reflect, consider, ponder, meditate and examine, crop up everywhere. God encourages us to reflect on everything; his words (2 Timothy 2: 7), his great acts (1 Samuel 12: 24), his statutes (Psalm 119: 95), his miracles (Mark 6: 52), Jesus (Hebrews 3: 1), God's servants (Job 1: 8), the heavens (Psalm 8: 3), the plants (Matthew 6: 28), the weak (Psalm 41: 1), the wicked (Psalm 37: 10), the oppression (Ecclesiastes 4: 1), the labour (Ecclesiastes 4: 4), the heart (Proverbs 24: 12), our troubles (Psalm 9: 13), our enemies (Psalm 25: 19), our sins (2 Corinthians 13: 5). Everything is up for reflection but we are guided by the need to look for the excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4: 8) and to learn from whatever we see or experience (Proverbs 24: 32).
Clearly all this reflection cannot take place just at specific times. Just as we are told to pray always, the implication of the Bible's encouragement to reflection is that we should reflect at all times. We need to make a habit of reflection, a habit of learning from experience and of looking for the excellent things.
I should like to link this thought to ideas put forward by Nicholas Mosley in his sequence of novels 'Catastrophe Practice'. There he explores, both through his characters and his prose style, the possibilities of reflecting not just on the facts of our existences but on the connections between these facts and then, going further, on the processes of our minds and language that can observe such connections. His explorations are a reflection on reflections.
I spoke earlier about an ability to see an issue from a variety of differing perspectives, an ability to see the links between a variety of arguments, a refusal to be satisfied with one version of a whole truth. This comes through the practice of quietness and reflection which enables real listening to take place.
Most people do not really listen to their fellows. Their concern is with speaking themselves and even when they are not speaking their minds are focused on what they plan to say next. As a result people often only partly hear what another person is saying. Jesus often made the statement; 'He who has ears let him hear'. It sounds like stating the obvious but he was highlighting the fact that, although we superficially hear a lot of what others say, often we do not genuinely hear in the sense of giving our full attention and then considering carefully what has been put to us. Many of the conflicts that develop between people and groups are the result of people misunderstanding what the other person or group are trying to say and vice versa.
When people genuinely listen their experience is of perceiving connections between themself and the person with whom they are speaking. Mosley sees this perception as an early stage in real learning. The next stage is to observe ourselves observing.
Again, this can be understood by thinking about conversation. We often correct ourselves as we speak. We hear what we are saying and think that we have not expressed ourselves as well as we wished so we restate or add to our point in order to become clearer. Most of the time we do this semi-consciously. Mosley suggests that we practice this ability and that we constantly observe our thought and speech processes.
To do so will slow our conversations considerably. Conversations would involve more and greater pauses, would not flow but would stop and start, would circle round a point as we search for the clearest method of making our point, would involve more questioning, summarising and clarifying. Each of us would need to learn what are in effect interviewing and/or counselling techniques. Mosley's novels are written in just such a style.
Mosley argues that there is a need to "evolve a language which will try to deal not just with facts, with units of data, together with the patterns, connections, that such data, together with the minds that observe them, make - in particular a language that can deal at the same time both with the data and with the language that is traditionally used to describe them. By this, apparent contradictions might be held. This language would be elusive, allusive; not didactic. Some such language has been that of poetry, of art; also of love ..."
He notes, though, that many will find the prospect of such a language disconcerting:
"But such complexities, arrogances, are in deed alarming: men are more easily at home, more protected, within the simple and infantile antagonisms of putting one fact against another; of knocking down cases like skittles; of making a fantasy of identity by putting the boot in."
He identifies this alternative approach to language, with its concern with connections and links, with tenderness.
I have tried to show that the Bible encourages continual reflection and, reflection on every aspect of life. This reflection is of both observable facts - e.g. the actions of the wicked - and the consequences or processes attached to these facts - e.g. the outcome of a wicked way of life (Psalm 37: 35 -38).
The Bible, itself, regularly uses the language of paradox or apparent contradiction; the ideas of the first being last and the last first, of giving up your life in order to find life and, of God being three in one and one in three are all examples.
The Bible is also constructed in a way that parallels Mosley's suggested approach to language. It is not constructed using a linear approach to argument. It is not constructed in, what is perceived to be, a logical mode of reasoning - that of making one proposition follow on from the first. Instead it appears to be all over the place. There is a multitude of different styles and of writers/narrators. In terms of the factual narrative or history there are times when there appear to be big gaps and other times when material is repeated on several occasions. If we believe in the infallibility of scripture then we must accept that this was God's chosen design - chosen for a purpose and useful for us to imitate.
Of course, it's immense variety is one of the reasons for its great fascination but God's reasoning goes far beyond this alone. The Bible was not prepared simply as a proof of God's existence. It has a role, along with creation and the life and person of Jesus, as an evidence of God's existence but is intended as a revelation of God rather than a proof. As such it attempts to put into words that which is indescribable. The creator is more various that the huge and minute universe which he has created. How would it be possible to give a sense of this abundant other than through a large, varied collection of writings that speak to us not just in their content and style but also in the connections between passages, events and styles? To recognise the fullness of God in scripture demands reflection. To communicate the fullness of God to others demands a similar use of reflective language.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Innocence Mission - Gentle The Rain At Home.
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