No news, no internet, no email, no TV, no cell phones, no home phone just quiet, nature, family, worship, peace, stillness…..No I haven’t just described some respite for overworked and stressed out families; I’ve just described my new home.  It’s located in a beautiful National Forrest, 4 miles past the middle of nowhere, Mississippi.

I can handle not watching or even listening to the news, for its rather depressing, and we’ve done without TV with the exception of a video now and then, and I knew before we moved that we would have to drive miles to get any kind of cell phone reception, and I had even accepted the fact that it would be a week or so until we could be hooked up for internet and email but when my home phone quit working I didn’t know what to do.  All of a sudden I had lost all connection to the outside world.  What if someone had to call us?  What if there was an emergency?  What would we do then?  Then I realized that we would do what everyone else use to do when faced with the same dilemma….we’d hop into the horse and buggy (or car in our case) and drive to town.   So, with that conclusion I started to enjoy the quiet.  I took time to watch my children play outside and took pleasure in the environment, my children gathered around the piano and we sang songs, I worked and worked hard around the house, I enjoyed the day and the quiet.  I recalled the scripture in Psalm 46 that said, “Be still and know that I am God.”  It’s a lot easier to know and recognize God all around you when the noise of the world is absent.

As soon as the phone company came out and fixed our phones I immediately called my family and friends.  Come to find out, no one had even tried to call.  So much for thinking I had missed something.  Could it be that my Lord wanted to show me that it’s ok to slow down and enjoy the simple things of life?  If I’m not careful I’ll spend my entire life running around doing what is good and completely miss the best things in life.  Sometimes it just takes slowing down and being quiet in order to see what’s best. With that said, I think I’ll go and take a walk……

“And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isa 32:18)