Silenced? Maybe.

It’s been quiet around here lately.
Quiet: It’s a word I’m learning to lean into.

photo source: Maddie Daggett

Before you start trying to imagine what this quiet might look like, let me explain what it is not: I’m not at all speaking about a lack of noise in my house. After all, I still have 3 kids and a hand full of other children who fly in and out of our front door as if they live here too. We like life this way – with a revolving front door and little people who know that they are (almost) always welcome in.

The quiet I’m referring to is more of a personal quiet. Quiet on the blog. Quiet in the car (Have mercy! I’ve started turning the radio off while I drive alone.) Quiet in friendships. Quiet in responsibilities.

Sometimes quiet for me means something is wrong. It can be translated into, “Why so downcast, Oh my soul?” But not this time.

One particular verse, Zephaniah 3:17 (a popular favorite), keeps seeping into the cracks and crevices of my mind. I’ve blogged about the verse before a year and a half ago, so I assumed God was just reminding me of the lesson He taught me then.

{If you’d like to read it, that post is here. It’s one of my favorites because it documents a sweet, tender mother/son, Father/daughter moment.}

But in this season – in all this quiet – I beginning to realize He’s applying the verse in a very different way.

The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

Oh, how I love this verse. Don’t you?

…. he will quiet you by his love.

Usually this line is translated, “he soothes you by his love” (and that is exactly how it usually applies to me), but when I dug into my concordance, I felt the Lord practically apply this another way.

Quiet, here, is the word charash, which is defined as, “to cut in, plow, engrave; to be silent, to be speechless.” And THAT is exactly what I believe God has been doing in me. (Stay with me. I promise this will make sense.)

At first glance, the thought of being silenced by God seems kind of horrible. What is this all about? Did I say something wrong? Are you silencing me for good? I picture God putting His hand over my mouth, and it feels like a punishment.

But that’s not the context of this verse. This silencing is done out of His great love for us. Somehow, what’s going on here is tender and sweet. So, now I’ve changed my mind about this quieting, and I want to lean into the hand over my mouth.

Just maybe

… He will make me silent or speechless by his love {so that I can learn to listen more – so that I dig in and seek Him more – so that I can find and be found.}

… he will cut in, plow, engrave by his love {so that He tend to the quiet work of my soul – so that He can inscribe more of His Word on my heart – so that He can prepare me for the harvest ahead.}

Like only He can, God has the ability to strip away all that we think we know so that He can teach us that HE IS.

Why am I telling you this?

Who knows. Maybe you’re feeling silenced too. If you are, will you lean in? The Lord confides in those who fear Him (Psalm 25:14). Can He confide in you?

Or maybe, like me, you’re in a season that feels foreign to you. Do you need to be reminded today that God has a plan, and this very season is part of it. Even if you can’t see through the fog, will you trust that He will work out everything in conformity with the purpose of his perfect will (Ephesians 1:11)? He knows no other way but good.

ok. I’ll be quiet now. Happy day to you.

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