Check out Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 6.  Talks about quiet and tranquility.  The older we get, my wife and I appreciate quiet more and more.  Agreed?  Noise annoys us.

Where we used to live,  we heard loud train whistles at night.  After awhile, not that noticeable.  We got used to it.  The neighbor’s dog outside our bedroom window, barking at strange hours,  was never a welcome sound.  Diesel trucks chugging up our neighborhood, spewing black smoke into the air amid the rattling din of the engine was certainly unwelcome.

Solomon refers to ‘better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind'(ESV).  Of course, there’s nothing wrong with ambition.  Burning the midnight oil to get ahead in life.  Working hard, saving for the future.  Read Proverbs for such confirmations.  Laziness is never applauded in the Bible.

Something else is going on in Ecclesiastes 4:6.   We move inward to find the nugget of truth from the Lord.  To the place of peace and quiet.  We worry too much when it’s peace that’s supposed to reign in our hearts.  Let me confess that I’m in need of this peace as much as anyone else.

Too many of us live as if we were agnostics.  As if God didn’t even exist.  Like He could care less.  But He does care.  He does love us. We know that.  But sometimes it feels quite the contrary.  With every trouble we face, we do so not alone, but with Him by our side. Every trial and trouble…shared.    Why then does it take so long for me to recognize and believe that?  Why?  A lack of faith?  A forgetfulness?  Overloaded and maxed out?

Don’t you think that Solomon may actually be saying that less could be better for us?  Better one hand with quiet in it than two full hands overflowing with worry?  That too much whatever crowds out faith?  Think about it.  Can there be things, and even good things in our lives, that need one arm with the other one held freely,  lifted up high to praise the Lord?  With two hands loaded-down,  we can’t praise Him or open a door in kindness for someone else or even help us up off the ground.   We’re too weighed down.  Lighten up.  Let things go.  One quiet hand…now lifted high in praise!   That’s better!

Prayer:  Lord, help us to lighten the load of our lives.  We need your help for some peace and quiet today.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.