Disclosure: this blog originated December 2021 and has been a work in progress over the past few months.

It’s in the quiet moments that we often times find ourselves fully transparent and fully vulnerable not only with ourselves but also with the ones around us. It’s like our coffee hasn’t kicked in completely. Some people operate like this and for some there never really seems to ever be a quiet moment. Constantly going. Constantly creating. Constantly talking or thinking. Places exist like both of these.

I remember so vividly the first apartment community we lived in when we moved to the DFW metroplex. The apartment community is located at the intersection of Campbell and 75 right in the heart of the telecom corridor in Richardson, TX. Shops and restaurants line the bottom of the buildings while the apartments fill the next three stories. At any moment the whiff of bison burgers could potentially overtake the aroma of fresh coffee and pastries or the yummy all American versions of your favorite pasta dishes. Top all of that with the colorful window display coming from the froyo shop located at the corner of it all. And if that isn’t enough, breakfast tacos with fresh jalapeño ranch sauce and chips will surely satisfy any craving left untouched. Imagine it now. It was a foodie’s delight.

Being that our community was located next to 75 we also had the pleasure of experiencing the daily humming, drumming, wizzing, and whirling of the DART train system. It started out as the sound that we tried to drown out with sound machines and by the end of our time in that community it became the sound machine we found comfort in. The noise blended into the quiet still moments. Never a dull moment or even an empty sense being stimulated. Yet through it all, you could still feel the tenderness of each new day.

Most of our time in Texas was like this. Full of all the things and noises. Full of opportunities for growth professionally and personally. Seasons of spiritual growth and physical growth. Full moments of growing a family. All of this was amazing yet still never filled the empty spaces of hopes and dreams that only came up during those few quiet moments. Things that because of “the noise” and the constant movement were hard to accomplish because we literally never sat still. Physically or metaphorically and I had no clue that I was tired.

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, I’m pretty sure he didn’t think it would end up being 40 years of wandering. Can you imagine? I would have been so tired! Then time and time again the Lord would hardened Pharaoh’s heart which led to plague after plague. Hardship after hardship. But what we see in the end of the story is that all of that had to happen in order to fulfill the promise of the coming Messiah. Our coming King. The redeemer of it all!

Like the Israelites, we were tired. Tired of having our hearts hardened in one way or another. Hardened from good things and not so good things. Tired of feeling like those empty spaces of hopes and dreams were never going to be accomplished because reality is they probably wouldn’t as long as we were in the middle of all the noise. So I ask you this, what is “the noise” in your own life that keeps you wandering? Maybe resulting in brief seasons of growth, but yet never fully surrendering you to the “promised land?” I’m leaning into the quiet moments and digging into discovering what to do with those empty spaces while trusting the Lord to quiet the noise while my season of discovery continues to unfold.