5 Simple Ways to Lead a Quiet Life Today

Plus Some Links and Recommendations

I spent this past week in Chicago with my husband. While he attended a business conference, I read books in our hotel room and made decent use of the hotel gym. But my favorite part was in the early mornings. From our room’s window on the 18th floor, we’d watch the sun rise over Lake Michigan each day.

Where water meets sky and darkness meets light, there’s something other-worldly in those quiet moments between day and night. It’s a reminder to me that we are not made for this world. We are merely passing through. But while we are here, it is good to live in such a way that we are not automatically mirroring the world around us.

Rather, we are to walk in a different kind of light — we are to walk in the Light.

Amongst all the reading I’ve been doing in hotel rooms and otherwise, I’ve come across some good articles I’d like to share with you. Really, they culminate in five simple ways we can lead a quiet life today. This list isn’t exhaustive, of course, but it’s a sound place to begin.

1. Unplug, go outside, and take a long walk.

While doing so, resist the urge to listen to an audiobook or a podcast. Take the time to walk and pray, or even be alone with your thoughts. Walking is good for both body and soul.

For more inspiration, visit

Ishah

and hear her thoughts on “The Spiritual Discipline of Walking.” Also check out “The Ambling Mind” by

L. M. Sacasas

at The Convivial Society.

2. Radically reduce the intake of news.

I’ve never been a news junkie, but every four years I try to read what I can about the presidential candidates so I can make an informed decision. This year, we already know the candidates, and I’ve chosen not to engage with the news for the remainder of the year.

I’ve noticed my soul is more at rest this way, and I’m glad to see I’m not alone in this decision. Read “Resisting Our ‘New Dark Age’” by

Karen Swallow Prior

at RNS.

3. Embrace silence.

I know I’ve written a book on cultivating a quiet heart, but sometimes the actual quiet is really good for us, too. We don’t realize how much our world runs on noise until we’ve intentionally turned down the volume on everything.

Hadden Turner

shares some beautiful words on the gift of silence in his essay titled, “In the Midst of the Blissful Silence.”

4. Find beauty . . . in nature, in friendships, and in small moments.

As followers of Christ, we know that all of creation is God’s general revelation to us, and the Bible tells us that “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). So, it’s interesting to me when even nonbelievers recognize that something is deeply amiss when the world is bent on turning things ugly. In The Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan (I don’t know if she is a believer or not) shares some interesting insights in her article called, “The Uglification of Everything.”

One way we can push back on the world’s bent towards entropy and chaos is to find beauty wherever we go, or even better, to create beauty wherever we are. Celebrating the beautiful is an act of resistance in an age of noise and distraction and uglification.

5. Read the Bible . . . slowly.

Let its pages fill you with the only hope that can quiet the qualms of a restless heart. Because it’s the only Book with words that are, quite literally, alive.

Jen Pollock Michel

captures this well in her reflection on resurrection morning: “On Reading the Bible More Slowly.”

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More Substacks I recommend . . .

The following Substacks are also definitely worth reading. They’re good words written by good people.

• “Back to the Road, Again” by

  Thomas Allbaugh
  . Congrats, Dr. Allbaugh, on retirement!

• “A Faithful Life” by

  Lisa Jacobson
  . I love that you’re doing this, Lisa.

• “Advice from a Curmudgeon” by

  Scott James Boley
  . Some good thoughts here, Scott.

• “How Coffee Became a Joke” by

  Ted Gioia
  . This piece made me smile.

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Share your words, too . . .

Are you writing on Substack? If so, leave a link in the comments so we can enjoy your words.

Shalom.

Denise