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The Power of a Quiet Life

I saw a preaching from Francis Chan (a well known American pastor) a last year on Youtube titled “The Power of a Quiet Life.”

It was based on the verse of 1 Thesselonians 4:11

It stuck with me, because it was a preaching that quite honestly I did not know how to respond to.

The sermon called for us to make it our ambition to live a quiet life, to not seek a platform or audience, but just to faithfully serve God, and he will raise up whom he chooses.

Now perhaps its my youth, or my personality or my generation but the desire to simply “live a quiet life” just did not sit well with me. Its not that I want to be famous, but I do want my life to have impact. To be able to look back on it with satisfaction knowing that I helped people along the way.

But somehow that seems in contrast to this call. To lead a quiet life, is to simply be content where you are, not seek greater impact on people… right?

Or perhaps not. The relationship ingrained in the minds of our generation that is directly attacked by this verse is this:

More people = More impact

But is it true?

A misguided formula

I think if we look at Jesus life we see it is actually is not. Jesus did not seek the crowds, he ran from them. He spent the majority of life as a carpenter and spent a few short years teaching 12 disciples the way to follow God. That was it.

And he became the most impactful person in history.

Which runs counterintuitive to how we approach impact today. We think impact is about breadth, but Jesus shows that impact — at least spiritual impact is much more about depth. 

So – make it your ambition to live a quiet life? – it is still something I struggle with, but by looking at Jesus, I see that chasing more is not the answer to living a life modelled after Jesus.

Until next week,

Be Blessed,

Aaron

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