A Talkative Spirit

As a writer, I talk to myself a lot. Every time I sit down to write, I think through in my mind what I want to say, how I want to say it, and I craft a the potential “conversation” that I want to have with my readers. It’s a process that works for me for writing, but the trouble is that the talking doesn’t end once I’m now longer in front of the computer screen. Like all of us, I suppose, I’m constantly making internal evaluations about what’s going on around me. I’m planning and creating strategies for how to go about life. Within my mind, I ruminate on this world and create a dialogue with myself on how I’m going to navigate it.

And while this propensity for inner dialgogue may be common, I’m not sure it’s Biblical. The Bible says that I should have a quiet spirit (I Peter 3:4). A quiet spirit is one that’s so content in the Lord that I do not feel the need to figure out for myself how I’m going to go about life. A quiet spirit is one that trust the Lord’s plans and is letting Him lead, not crafting my own initiatives. A quiet spirit so rests in God’s evaluations of this life as is revealed in His Word, that my evaluations are unimportant. In other words, when my spirit is talkative is means that I’m listening to me, and not to Him, and that is indicative of where I’m placing my trust.

May my spirit increasingly be silent, so that may listen to His Spirit more.