Hush, please!

I have a few idiosyncrasies that my students learn fairly quickly, and saying “hush, please”  instead of “shut up” or “shut your trap”or “be quiet, you idiot” is one of them. On the first day of school, I explain that we’ll be using this more euphemistic approach as an alternative to the overused “shut up” version, and if they prefer their teacher happy, then they’ll learn to apply this lesson immediately. Which they do.
   
“Isn’t that more pleasant?” I ask them. Once they see I’m serious, they have fun with it, eventually correcting each other always with a grin in my direction.

Whenever I hear them in the hall using the old derogatory phrase instead of the new more pleasant one, they’ll laugh and say, “Oh! Sorry, Mrs. Bader. What I meant was, hush, please!” Rarely does a day go by that I haven’t heard “hush, please” at least once.

In Psalm 46:10, God says:  “Be still and know that I am God.” In other words, he reminds us to hush, please, and hear what He has to say. To hush, please, so we won’t miss what He’s about to do. To hush, please, and let Him awe us with his presence. The verse shouts over the noise and the frantic pace and the confusion that sometimes makes up our day as He reminds us that He’s God, and He wants to be known. “Be still and know that I am God.”
 
My sister Liese is on fire for God; she is passionate, prayerful, and positively sure that God is most definitely God.  And she’s fun. Lots of fun.  Sometimes lots of very loud fun. And both Liese and I know how to make a joyful noise, noise being the key word. In other words, from a worldly perspective, noise is the only way to describe our singing.
 
Liese -- like most people who make more noise than music -- likes to sing while she drives. Travelling to a tennis tournament, she and her tennis partner were laughing and singing, thrilled with their musical abilities as they belted out the words to the song. A very loud, yet joyful noise sung by two noisemakers who love the Lord. But every now and then, they’d stop their enthusiastic singing and be still and listen to the music coming from the CD, which would remind them that they weren’t the ones who sounded so awesome. The music was coming from the CD; the noise was coming from them. They’d look at each other to affirm that a miracle hadn’t occurred; they still couldn’t sing all that well. Then they’d laugh and crank up their own volume once more, rocking along and belting out the words as loud as they possibly could.

Sometimes we need to stop what we’re doing and simply listen to the One who does it best. And as we’re still, we’ll know He is God. He’s the great one. He’s the one doing it well.

Last month, Liese and I were invited by our sweet, generous sister Janie to a fabulous resort in Cabos San Lucas, where we spent five days eating and swimming and laughing and crying and even occasionally singing. With delicious cuisine, luxurious rooms, and the beautiful crystal-clear aquamarine water of the Sea of Cortez, we loved every minute of our trip, but mostly we enjoyed being together on what we refer to as our annual sisters’ vacation.
  
Relaxing on our private patio, I’d write, read my Bible, pray, and simply enjoy being in the presence of the One responsible for all the beauty in our world.  One morning while my sisters were still sleeping, I sat outside, drinking my coffee and listening to the roar of the ocean. As I started to turn my chair around so I could see the water, I stopped. And God spoke. And I was still and listened. And then I was awed.

God reminded me that morning that sometimes I need to turn my back on what I can see and simply listen and pay attention to what I can’t see.

So I didn’t look at the beautiful water; instead, I merely listened to the sounds all around me. And as I did, the violent roar of the ocean, the strange caw of the gulls, even the salt-water scent in the air overwhelmed my senses and brought tears to my eyes. Even when I couldn’t see the water. Maybe it was because I couldn't see the water. 

God is invisible, but the visible evidence of who He is, what He does, and what He is presently doing is not always where we are looking. Sometimes we just have to stop and be still in his presence, and He’ll overwhelm us with who He is.

“Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth.”