Noise and distraction—I actually like a good bit of both. But they keep me from connecting with the Lord. David wrote in one of his psalms:

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

To praise the Lord from the depth of my soul takes time and quiet. Not noise or distractions, but rather a few minutes of still.

Our souls lie covered, like a walnut under a forest floor blanketed with leaves. Only by brushing back the detritus do we find what we’re hoping for.

Souls open in quiet places. The rush of the holidays doesn’t reveal quiet moments, but then again, neither does the rest of my life. I can stay busy and distracted all year long. In fact, I’m quite good at it.

But such a life does not allow for a flourishing soul. A little bit of still goes a long way in connecting my inmost being with its Creator.

Psalm 103 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Roman Datsiuk