In our A-Z of Christian Faith, looking at essential ingredients in a life of faith, we reached the letter Q – a notoriously difficult letter in English, worth 10 points in Scrabble!
Questions was the obvious choice for the letter, but while questions are perhaps inevitable, they are not necessarily essential! So in the end, we looked at Q is for Quietness.
Quietness is not highly prized nowadays, and there are so many noises all around us – alarm clocks, phones ringing, traffic, music and so on – and also within us (questions, doubts, fears, insecurities etc.) Jesus makes it clear that we need to listen well (see Matt 11:13, Matt 13:9, Matt 13:43, Mark 4:9, Luke 8:8), a view reinforced in the book of Revelation (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22, 13:9). Isaiah made it clear to the Israelites that ‘in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it’ (Is 30:15). They were more interested in finding their own solutions (see Is 30:1-17) and we are often the same, shunning quietness for a number of reasons (because of our personalities, a belief that we are too busy to be quiet and ultimately and a fear of what God may say to us if we slow down sufficiently to hear Him.)
Quietness is essential, however, if we are to:
- tune in to listen to God’s voice without distraction
- find the peace and wellbeing God wants for us
- live with a right perspective of life