The Quiet of the Morning

Sitting outside on the porch in the warmer weather and enjoying the still, quiet reverie of the morning has always been one of my favorite things to do. There’s just something about the morning, long before the world machine gets going. There’s a gentleness in the air, a softness absent any sharp edges. It’s peaceful and calm and quiet and warm and assured and in pleasant expectation for a brand new day. It’s that sublime time when God is on the line, well He’s always on the line, but we aren’t always listening. Yet He doesn’t yell. Instead He waits for us to quiet down inside. The sole reason people traipse into the wilderness is to get away from all the noise, even though most of that noise lives within. So what is the lesson of the morning?

In the new day, all is new. There’s no vestige of yesterday, no heavy bags to carry, no weariness from fighting the good fight. We have opportunity in that moment to make the day what we will. We can choose to squander it away in a foolish remembrance of yesterday’s mishaps or we can dream a new scene in our play, one where we get to play the lead. The day, in its infancy, is brand new with a glorious fresh start provided us every 24 hours.  We may be on the verge of living our best day yet. We may meet someone that positively changes our life forever. We may even discover God, though He has always been close by. The first lesson of the morning is ever a new beginning.

The quiet reverie of the morning instills upon our hearts the need for quiet. All of God’s creation beckons us to slow down a bit and look around. There’s an inherent calmness in nature that secretly serves to calm us as well. In our frenzied thinking we get drawn down paths we never intended. We find ourselves arguing points we only half believe. The endless din of endless responsibilities and endless requirements deafens us to the answers standing all around us. In our dire agitations we solve nothing, we fix nothing, we heal nothing, we repair nothing. Instead we scramble in circles on a cosmic hamster wheel, picking up speed and going nowhere fast. We can no more find a solution to our dilemma than we can find our missing watch in the agitated sea. After all, as a blessed man once quoted, “The greatest cargoes of life come in over quiet seas.” If there is one thing that both you and I can benefit from, it is getting ourselves quiet inside. In that quiet, solemn space we can talk honestly with God about whatever is causing us pain and we can hear His response, though it be a still small voice. The next lesson of the morning is quietness and peace.

The morning is always the beginning. It is the first part of the larger part. It is never an extension of yesterday. It serves as our starting place for what is next. But, we do not know what is next. We have no idea. We can guess, we can logically conclude, we can measure probabilities, but we can never actually know. That serves as a sort of metaphor for our lives. We do not have any control over most of our lives. In fact, the only things we can control are what we choose to believe and there’s no room for guessing on that one. We can believe God and reap the results in our lives. That, my friends, is our only true safety. Otherwise we are hoping so and playing a deadly game of craps. Thus the sweetest part of the morning is the time we spend with God, our Father. Jesus rose up very early to talk with God, not out of obligation, but because He had a lot to talk about. We too have a lot to talk about and the morning is there for our audience with Him. It is our time to give our silly selves another fresh start; a real new beginning. It’s a time to resolve ourselves to the day that is and let go of the day that was. It is a time to escape the pandemonium that assaults us every day and in our finally quiet hearts, get things straight. My beloved Morning Pages are nothing more than a daily invitation to get things straight. It is time to think and consider, outside the influence of strong emotions or fear. It is to treat the day with the sovereignty it deserves as it is the only day that is. The greatest lesson of the morning is the time we spend with God, Father and son, no judgment, no censorship, no playing a role. No need to feign this or pretend that. No mask, no Facebook worthy post, no pretense. Come as you are, who you are, where you are… Every person living needs this kind of help. For goodness sakes, there’s too many curves in the journey to figure it out on our own. Listen to the morning.

As time goes on, as it necessarily must, I think you will find your greatest pleasures come from the simple things. There’s a time when you like the music loud, but also a time when you won’t. Sometimes you may need to remove yourself from the noise. You don’t have to re-discover the wilderness. But, you will need to quiet some of the voices clamoring for entrance into your mind. Stop scrolling for a bit. Stop allowing yourself to be carefully positioned into one undesirable group in order to avoid the other undesirable group. There is safe middle ground called the whole rest of the world. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, “Where am I right now?” Have I arrived at the right port? Am I clear about what is going on or am I lost in someone else’s ideas about what is right and needful? But, you will be wasting your time if you try to approach these crucial themes in the midst of the racket. No, in order to do that you are going to need a safe space where it’s quiet, where there’s the promise of a brand new day. You need calmness of mind and calmness of heart. You need your own Morning Pages to cherish, lighting your path to what is ahead. You need to have that talk you have been meaning to have with Him, the One that already knows you well. You need the quiet of the morning.

Just some good thoughts…