“Silence”

We live in a very noisy world. Words and sounds stream into our homes via television, ipods, computers, and CDs. We hear music in restaurants and stores, elevators and those awful recordings that are played through the phone when we are put “on hold”. Even outdoors, living involves noise: lawn mowers, power tools, motorcycles, cars and trucks. Some noises are cheerful: the sound of children playing in the pool. Some are distressing: the neighbors arguing, again. Some sounds alert us to need: A siren can be a call to prayer, the cry of a baby a signal that it's time for food and comfort!
In fact, we can become so used to noise that silence feels strange and uncomfortable. We want to fill up the silence with music, or conversation, or some distraction. However, in order to “hear” God speak, we need regular times of silence. The silence of solitary prayer cultivates in us the ability to listen for God.

In one sense, this kind of prayer is difficult: we feel distracted, we remember things that need doing, and our minds are restless. But if we desire the presence of God in our lives, we need times of silence and rest in prayer. In this interior quiet, we can listen for and finally hear God's voice amidst all of the other voices clamoring for our attention. In silent prayer and listening, we can begin to let go of ourselves and find God.

We all need to create space in our busy world for silence and to spend time in a place where the world will not overwhelm us. Daniel Wolpert writes in his book Creating a Life with God, “When we go to sit in silence, when we turn our minds to our Creator, we begin the process of allowing God to be the center of our world. Usually we occupy that central position. We control the pace and tempo of our lives; we set the agenda; we decide what happens when. The practice of solitude turns this order of things upside down. Suddenly nothing is before us but empty space and time-no list of activities and chores, nothing important on our agenda. We place ourselves at God's disposal and we don't know when, or even if, our Creator will appear. This is unnerving.”

The work of silence is the work of gently saying “no” to the endless stream of thoughts and feelings that make up our world in order to listen for and say “yes” to the thoughts and feelings that are the voice of God. It takes practice to slowly begin to hear God over the chattering of our own internal dialogue.
Allow silent moments during your day. Driving without the radio on or a CD playing can be a time to attend not only to your driving, but also to God. Develop a prayer center in your home, a place where you can spend time alone with God, with no distractions. Try spending 10 to 30 minutes in silence each day. Enter into times of silence in worship as we listen to God together.

In Christ,

 

Pastor Stephanie