I am often up at a very early hour. Whether I am at home or at work or even at a hotel or retreat center-one thing tends to be true. It is very quiet. So quiet that at times you can hear traffic on an interstate many miles away. Or leaves rustling against the wind. Or maybe the building creak a little.
The Tremeloes once famously sang "Silence is golden." But do we treasure silence. Many immediately break the silence by turning on their favorite radio station. (I tend to turn on Sports Center on the TV.) Others fill the air with praise and worship tapes. But to paraphrase Simon and Garfunkle, "The sounds of silence are sometimes lost in the sounds (noise) that comfort us."
In many ways silence really is a godly friend, if you don't bury it in sounds. It is not without accident that David writes in Psalm 46.10, "Be still and know that I am God."
Without times of silence, our lives have no real reflection--we have no awareness of what really is around us--we have no active listening that allows us to hear God and know God.
Don't see silence as an enemy and don't despise silence with so much background noise. God does his best speaking when we are silent enough to listen.
(C) by Stephen L. Dunn. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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