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The Joy of the Quiet Life

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,” Paul writes (1 Thess. 4:11). It’s a small sentence with endless needs to meditate on and work out in living.  He says, “make it your ambition not to be ambitious”.  It’s a value, a desire, to embrace the anonymity of humility. It’s dreaming big about living small.  Be willing to live without being noticed, without the need for people to make us feel like we count.  It is enough that God knows us and has adopted us into his family...we are his children, that’s all I need.

The “quiet life” – isn’t it boring?  It’s so un-American...it’s dull... what about relationships?  What about the newest and best?  What about making a difference?  

A quiet life doesn’t mean we have no goals, or expectations; it simply means we look around us, and we look beside us.  We look around us and beside us at the people whom God has placed in our lives for us to serve.  

As I think about this my mind goes to what I've often thought about and project to others.  There was a time when I could tell you the latest news, have opinions on the state of the world, and how to solve the problems of modern society.  I could tell you what the best movie out there was, and the books I had read;  but I couldn’t tell you what my daughter’s favorite stuffed animal was.  I couldn’t tell you what my son’s drawings on the refrigerator were all about.”

It's easy to get lost in self-importance...it's much more difficult to choose simplicity, anonymity, humility, and unplug. 

I was listening to a radio broadcast of Renewing Your Mind from Ligonier ministries.  Dr. Sinclair Ferguson was teaching and at one point I had to stop and re-listen to what he said.  I listened to it four times.  He said,
“Be willing to not be a part of the conversation about the latest book, (or movie) (or TV show) that everyone is reading, and talking about...but be sure you read the books that really make a difference.”


What books have you read that have really made a difference in your values, in your faith, in the way you live out your life?  Can you be content in “living a quiet life”?

Peace

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