about after the fire

Do you ever have those moments where you read something and it just makes your soul hush?

There is this bit about Elijah in 1 Kings 19 that is just so darn lovely.  It is pouring out its stillness all over my heart.

Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

If you were to ask me for some adjectives to describe God I think the first few words out of my mouth would be "mighty, powerful, all-knowing, strong..." It would be words that, to me, describe God's glory, something I tend to think has to be loud and obvious.  

John Piper wrote a poem about Elijah and my favorite stanza reads "And then a bolt of lightning hit/ The cliff beside the cave and split /The mountain like a blade would cleave/A melon rind and then bereave/ Ten thousand hearts. Come look and see/ Is this the sum of majesty?/ What is the God of glory like/ He was not present in the strike."

Those words remind of what is true and of what I forget -- that God finds his glory both in the loud, stormy moments of my life but also in the still and ordinary parts.

In his encounter with Elijah, God's glory is not some sort of "showing off" through his great power over the elements.  What is magical and special is his stillness.  It's as if he is saying "See this? All this power I have over the earth? That is NOTHING compared to the glory I receive in being with you always, in being your God in each and every moment."  

I really don't want to cheat God out of his "sum of majesty", as Piper puts it.  Because if I think his glory will only present itself in thunder and lightning, I am missing his greatest delight -- the moments when I am so still that his voice rings in me and calls me to life.