Quiet time?

At my house a “quiet time” is mostly non-existent. By strict definition, quiet is, well, no noise, or at least at a volume well below the norm for the environment. Time as its own entity could be any length, but in respect to the term “quiet time” there is an expectation of “enough” time to feel that one has been blessed to enjoy the desired allotment of moments to garner strength in relationship with the Lord God and gain His perspective on life’s current circumstances.

My current circumstances and environment fully comprise a total lack of any semblance to the strict definition of “quiet time.”

Snapping, crackling kindling on a steady approach to my house, with the loud, raucous play shouts of the children next door put an abrupt stop to my endeavoring to sink more deeply into the mattress this morning. I fight the need to roll out of bed and put a pause on the impending need to grab a wet towel and beat back the flames. Once I realize I am not sinking deeper but instead slowly tensing up, I jump out of bed and peek through the shutters to see . . . no flames. The sound was the incessant popping of water falling from the top of an elevated water tank to its cement foundation because the pump had been carelessly left unattended during filling. 

Now irrevocably up and out of bed, there was too much adrenalin released to attempt sinking back in. I sigh. The neighbors abundance of water is in stark contrast to our absence of water on this side of the hedge. I slowly move to the bathroom to brush my teeth. More water issues as there is no water in the water bottle we use for tooth brushing. I grab it and shuffle down the hall to fill the bottle. As I round the corner I am greeted by someone at the door asking for something. I mumble for them to “first wait” and I commence my oral hygiene back down the hall. On my return to the kitchen, my first stop is to put water on for coffee, THEN retrieve the needed item for the one at the door at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday!  Banange. 

Coffee in hand, I retreat to the illusion of my quiet room in an attempt to garner and gain both the comfort of His presence and the strength of His wisdom for today. Today is where we are, it’s what we have, tomorrow is not guaranteed and yesterday’s minutes, for positive or negative, have been approved.

With coffee and Bible in hand, I was able to spend some good time reading the word, writing in my journal and pondering what I should ask for today. Peace of mind and joy of heart. Those are my two greatest needs.

And then I ventured over to a friend’s house to witness true chaos. She’d been trying to get out the door to go to pick up something down the village road for the past two hours. As I arrived there was someone waiting for something, neighbor kids playing in the living room, a compound helper returning from a job and looking for more instructions, three boys wanting to move some furniture, and when you thought there couldn’t be another person at the door, lo, there appeared a group of about seven kids from her family group come to help her clean and do odd jobs. They’d arrived about three hours earlier than she expected! I was there to catch some time to talk about something we didn’t get to finish talking about yesterday at my house--due to a slew of similar interruptions. Our plan was to talk as we drove down the village road--thus killing two birds with one stone. Trouble was that all these other birds showed up at the moment we were trying to climb in the car and the immediate squeezed out the important. Such is the nature of most Saturdays at New Hope. 

Quiet time is tough to find, but interaction with others--abundant.