By Chase Parnell
One of the maxims of the Mennonite tradition that I latched onto when I joined the church was this concept of being “Quiet in the Land.”* It’s romantic in a counter-cultural idealistic sort of way. Who wouldn’t want a cabin in the woods or a fertile homestead to slip away to? Your own little slice of serenity, away from the noise of society as we currently know it.
The term quiet in the land relates back to the early persecution of protestant reformers, where freethinking seekers left the Catholic church in droves and started following Christ in a new way. The blow-back, though, when subsequent denominations such as the Mennonite’s formed, was an extreme form of isolationism that still exists today in some old-order sects. To them, their faith community couldn’t be removed far enough from modern society. Preservation of the old ways and resistance to the wheels of change became unifying elements. I find myself wanting to land somewhere in the middle.
My quest to live more quietly in the land has manifested itself in a variety of modern day conundrums. I have deleted social media apps off my phone in fits of disgust and confusion, only to reinstall them a few days or weeks later. I cancelled our cable TV and instead set reading goals. I try to advocate non-violence and peace-making when conversations about global politics arise. We constructed six raised beds in our backyard to become more intentional and connected to the foods we put in our bodies. I live two miles away from work, so I bike and it feels good to do so.
I feel as if I understand what the early Mennonite Church may have desired. They recognized the world was heading to a place they didn’t want to go, so instead of falling in line and conforming, they slipped away from it all to focus on God, their community, and living simply.
I know it’s easy to romanticize. I think of communal living at times: just my family and I, some close knit neighbors, and a piece of land. We could avoid all the madness we hear about and read on our phones. How active in society are we really called to be anyway? The apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.” (NLT)
The name of this space is Contemplations because the goal is simply to stoke the flames of intentional thought. I certainly don’t have the answers. But if we allot even a modicum of headspace to this effort, we might grow and shape our futures to live more peacefully and better represent our God in heaven.
Please comment if you have thoughts or opinions.
Thanks for taking the time to read this entire post; I know it’s hard these days to read anything longer than a tweet.
*I am admittedly not an expert in Mennonite history or theology. I am a long-time Christian but relatively new to the Mennonite church. I have no actual authority to dissect the historical/contextual underpinnings of the term “Quiet in the Land.” I am merely extrapolating on my impressions of the term and what it means to me personally.