So often in life we strive and are so consumed with figuring God out that our urgency and anxiety actually causes us to miss him. For example over the years I have spent many quiet times in the mornings doing anything and everything but being quiet. During these times my prayers have been noble and centered on the usual requests for things and ways in which I wanted God to show up and show me, yet all I heard was silence.
For some years now I have chosen to spend more of my time silent. You see, remaining quiet has helped me to center myself and be present and most importantly aware of what he wants to do with and in me on any given moment. It has helped me to relax my perspective and shift my attention to begin to understand which is the language that God uses most of the time he speaks to us.
If I am honest some days I don’t hear nor see anything though I still sense his presence and love for me. Other days his voice and rhythm are like a silent dance where there is no audible noise yet much can be seen and heard.
Many of us are afraid of being silent as we think that not saying something means that we will not receive anything. It is true that it says that there is a time to speak and there is a time to listen. That there is a time to ask and there is a time to receive. Yet, as I look around the condition of the Church in the world today and see where all of our talking and asking has led us to, if we are honest, is neither healthy nor good. So consider with me that perhaps it is time we start to say and ask less and listen more so we can receive what we really need. Consider that maybe the stuff that will really make a difference can only be asked and received through the silence of our heart. Consider also that maybe we have missed what is going to make the real difference in all of our noise and it won’t be until we are silent that we will be able to know what this is so we can ask for it.
There is a reason why the desert, space, and the universe are silent. There is a reason why so many of us need to first be asleep at night before we are able to even hear and see our deepest thoughts and what we really believe. There is a reason why our tears travel down our faces silently. There is a reason why the voice Elijah heard was small, still, and silent to the ears on either side of his head. I think it is safe to say that if we really want to hear his voice we first need to become comfortable with his silence.
God speaks the loudest through silence. It is his silence that exposes the loud noise our wounds create within us. It is through silence that he heals and calms our deepest pain. Often when he reveals himself he is silent like a thief at night yet unlike the thief he does not leave nor does he take but instead he quietly gives.
Remember – Gods language is silence. Do you speak it?
-pablo-
Photo by Feroswelt
