The Quiet
The quiet’s been calling as of late—the stillness, the calm, the silence of the sacred.
When God speaks, when his Holy Spirit whispers, it goes across the air waves, the pulpit, podcasts, and retreat centers. Each one beckons to come tarry.
Being still before the Lord our God allows us to better hear his voice within of our hearts. It’s about praying attention to that which he is pouring out and has poured out for the past two thousand years and what he will continue to pour out and into all whom he created.
Silence is nothing new. Since the beginning of time man searched for him and what did they find? They found that he was not in the powerful wind, nor in the earthquake, or the fire. In fact, God was not in the noise but in the gentle whisper which reassuringly guides.
I recently went on retreat. As my mode of operation tends to be more contemplative (quiet thinker) by nature, I was looking forward to it. To be sure I’d have plenty to do during the silence, I brought a book, some writing I could do in the quiet, and a devotional or two. Upon seeing my “stuff” the retreat director asked point blank. “What’s that?”
Confident that I had come well equipped for the journey, I showed her the goods, expecting to hear—Well done good and faithful servant. Minimally, I expected a half smile or a nod of the head. She looked directly into my eyes and responded. “You know what we call that?”
“No,” I confidently replied, “What do you call this?”
“We call that a distraction,” she said just as confidently.
I got the message and left the goods in my room as the retreat began—in silence.
And you know what? In the quiet I could hear his whispers more clearly. It’s not that he can’t show up in the noise, but the silence allows us to not only hear his voice but listen to it. Acts 17:28 comes alive in the silence: “In him we move and have our being.”
S.R. Burrows in her book, “Essence of Prayer,” states, “Prayer is not what I do, it’s what God does. It’s not what I’m giving to God but about God giving to me and what he gives is the gift of his very self.” In the silence one becomes more aware of his Holy presence.
Nothing new in any of this—but it’s good to be reminded. I often think about the places where people go to for silence. I think about the sacredness of the outdoors. I think about walks, and quiet talks between friends. I think about rest times when we pause to simply still our thoughts or retreating to the quiet of a coffee house where friends gather to share hearts. The quiet of the sanctuaries across the globe is nothing short of sacred as is the quiet of unplugging from the constant hum of technology navigating us rather than we navigating it.
Elizabeth Kelly, one of my favorite speakers, had this to say about silence as a form of sacred prayer: “It happens when one stops talking and starts listening. It is resting in the place of ‘you alone matter now.’ In the silence, we can fall in love with Truth which means, we are falling into the love of God—which is Truth.”
Resting in the silence, also comes with knowing that every time you open the Bible, the author is in the room. Hebrews 12:2 proclaims what it is we need be gazing at in the silence of our hearts, mind, and soul—as we quiet: “Let us gaze upon Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who, having joy laid out before him, endured the cross…” Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, three in One. Amen.
Kathleen Kjolhaug, Theology in the Trenches
Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash
