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“Be still, and know that I am God…” - Psalm 46:10, NKJV
Silence is when we close off our souls, our very being, from the ‘noise’ that surrounds us on a constant day-to-day
basis – the noise of music, words, sounds, the street, friends and even family. Today this is very hard – true
silence is extremely rare. There are people who have never ‘heard’ true silence, and don’t even really know
what true silence is!
Silence is frightening because it strips us as nothing else does, throwing us upon the grim realities of our life. A great
fear is that in this so-called quiet time, what happens if there seems to be very little of “just us and God”?
What does it say about the inward emptiness of our lives if we must always turn on the tape player or radio or must always
‘feel’ or ‘experience’ God to make sure something is happening in our world?
Sound has an interesting trademark – it always strikes deep and brooding in our souls. So for the sake of our souls,
we must seek times to leave our television, radio, tape players, and telephones turned off. We need to seek time to close
off street noises as much as possible, try to find how quiet we can make our world by our own hands.
For a lot of us the question regarding silence arises, “How can I practice this discipline? I am constantly surrounded
by people! I can never get alone!” While there is no clear-cut answer, a general idea is to wake up before everyone
else, or go to sleep after everyone else, so you can find as much as this heavily-needed silence as you can. Some people wake
up in the middle of the night just to spend some time in the silence, some of the only time they can muster. No matter the
avenue, don’t sleight the power of silence – in the quiet, God is there, God’s presence moves, and God speaks.
Silence is no different from all the other disciplines in one aspect – it must be approached prayerfully and experimentally.
Have confidence: God has its right uses for you! Silence is a powerful and essential discipline, because it is silence alone
that will allow us life-transforming concentration on the Creator of the Cosmos. It is in the silence where we can hear his
voice.
“He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.”
- Matthew 12:19, NKJV
“For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: "In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence
shall be your strength.’” - Isaiah 30:15
How few of us live with a quiet, inner peace. The world weighs down all around us, and we feel it choking us, suffocating
us to the point of fatal exhaustion. When we wake in the morning, demands are shoved down our throat. We toss and turn at
night, heads filled with knowledge that tomorrow’s harvest is no better; minds laden with the mistakes of the day, the
problems and circumstances to be fixed and avoided. So little of us have this quiet, inner peace; peace is a foreign word
with vague meaning. Yet we know we desire it. This peace, this comfort, this calmness is in our grasp; it can be touched;
the grace of God sustains us, fills us with joy and peace, and the door is often the discipline of silence. The harvest will
turn colors once we step through that door, and we will be able to direct others to the entryway. We can find confidence,
reassurance, approval, peace.
As one young person said,
“The more I practice this discipline, the more I appreciate the strength of silence. The less I become skeptical and
judgmental, the more I learn to accept the things I don’t like about others, the more I accept them as uniquely created
in the image of God. The less I talk, the fuller are words spoken at an appropriate time. The more I value others, the more
I serve them in small ways, the more I enjoy and celebrate my life. The more I celebrate, the more I realize that God has
been giving me wonderful things in my life, the less I worry about my future. I will accept and enjoy what God is continuously
giving to me. I think I am beginning to really enjoy God.”
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