Finding My Voice in the Sound of Silence

      Picture courtesy of Leonard Havemann, my uncle in law.

In her book, Finding My Voice, Diane Rhem (of public radio fame) wrote, "...silence unnerves me. I am uncomfortable in it. It's as though I don't fully exist in silence...sounds fill the void in me, a void that reminds me again and again of just how close I am to being alone. Silence is aloneness."

I suppose that many share Ms Rhem's emotion on the matter of silence. Many equate silence with aloneness, and that aloneness echoes around in the core of the soul like a metal ball bearing that clatters as it makes a scraping sound as it bounces then rolls over hardwood flooring.  It is that place of the soul where voids exist --- voids we want so desperately to fill.  

God says in several places in Scriptures, "Be still" and "Be silent, and know that I am God."  When Jesus fed the multitudes with the fish and loaves, He instructed the disciples to have the people to sit in small groups.  He blessed the food and broke up the barley loaves and boiled fish, and distributed them to the people,  After eating their fill and their hunger was completely satisfied, the disciples took up somewhere between seven and twelve baskets of scraps. But, Jesus found no contentment with performing such a miracle, even though it won Him the accolades and attention of the thousands of people in that barren place.  After the people were fed, Jesus sent them on their way, told the disciples to get into their boat and launch out for the other side, but, Jesus did not go with them.  Instead, He found a solitary and quiet place --- a place where the noise of people ceased and where the only sound might have been the hush whispers of the breeze or the occasional warble of a songbird in the distance.  And it was there, in that place of aloneness and silence that He communed with His Heavenly Father, receiving true nourishment, refreshment and re-creation; those precious commodities that busyness and people cannot provide, nor can they be extinguished, because in that place we find deep-seeded contentment and assurance that only that place in the silence can provide.  

It is in the place of solitary respite that our spirit is stirred and the soul can finally be at peace on any given day.  Jesus said that when you pray (when you seek the face of God), go into the inner chamber or closet and meet with God there, and you will be rewarded.  So, here is a question: 'what is the reward'?  I will share with you my opinion on what the answer may be...I remember the answer from my own pinning --- The reward is the presence of Him who calms the fear, heals the wounds, corrects with the loving gaze that only a father can provide.  The reward is when He leads with impressions of sweet assurance, grace and the infinite wisdom of His eternal Word.

Mother Theresa was asked by a journalist once upon a time, "when you pray, what do you do or say?" Her answer was a little startling to the questioner; 'Sometimes I do nothing and say nothing -- I just listen to God."  Continuing his query, the journalist asked, 'And what does God say?'  'Sometimes He says nothing.  Sometimes, He just listens, too," she replied, her eyes piercing and her wrinkled face unmoved, refusing to react to the shocked look on the face of her anxious interviewer.   

It is in the silence that we can find honest responses to the questioning of our own soul, too, to the haunting questions.  So we should embrace, not hold with disdain that place or time of silence and aloneness.  I believe that the urgent and constant need for noise is a sign of sickness of the soul.  Resist that, and let your heart open to the possibility that the most deepest of questions may just be answered and your restlessness quelled there, in the silence, where only the sound of the whispered breeze or the warble of the songbird in the distance might be your only audible companion, and God, the Great Listener, will reward you openly.  

Try this --- 'be still, and know God'.  He is there, waiting silently.  Don't be disappointed if He doesn't speak audibly, because He might just be listening, too.

Blessings,

Dave