The Calm, The Silence, The Roar

If you study each day very carefully you will notice that a pattern develops, a carefully crafted series of events that fall into one of three categories; the calm, the silence and the roar.

The calm is where you want to be. We all know the feeling, even if it is fleeting. We are at ease, free from fear and worry, not bothered by guilt or regret. You feel "right" somehow, as if your soul has managed to align itself with the universe. You are aware, but beyond the "bewares". It's a cool place, like the rocky shoreline beside a slow moving river on a spring day, when the currents in your mind are not unlike the eddies in the water before you; fluid.

Then there are moments of silence. These can break either way. They can lead to a place of calm but just as likely they can lead to a place of creeping unease. Many of us avoid silence because within it we think too much. Silence can provide us with a time of reflection or deflection. We choose. Choose wrong and the gears in our heads lock up. Even in the movies we are taught this "vibe". There's always the scene where one of the characters says, "It's quiet...too quiet."

The roar is the place you want to avoid. There is no calm there. No peace. This is where you do the forensic accounting of your life; debits to one side, credits to other. In this place your sole pursuit is the metric of pain.  There is a reason why the Apostle Paul said the devil "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1Peter 5:8). The evil that is out there wants to attack you, blot out your calm, fill your silence with pain and roar in your face.

In the calm moments remember to talk with God. In the silent moments? Seek Him. And in those moments that roar at you? Remember...nothing is louder than a prayer.