Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, June 17, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Quiet resting places. I live in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area. My townhome is sandwiched between a fairly busy road (currently under construction) and the construction site of a new light rail line. Quiet is sometimes hard to come by here. This is why I cherish the early mornings, those precious hours before the first truck rumbles by outside my window, its back-up beeping a persistent reminder of my particular location.
Don’t get me wrong—I love where I live. And while part of me would like to disappear into the woods and be a hermit, I can’t deny the fact that I grew up in the suburbs of New York City and, well you know the old adage: You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl. So I sort of hope this promise of Isaiah’s gets to be a “both/and” promise. That this peaceful habitation can be urban and still quiet, these secure dwellings can still be rowhouses like mine, where kids play out in the street and neighbors greet one another with big smiles, and still provide the reverent hush of those early mornings I so enjoy.
Am I able to find and enjoy quiet where I live?
