"God said to Elijah,"Go out and stand on the mountain, for the Holy One is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before God, but God was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but God was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence." 1 Kings 19:11-12
Sheer silence. When was the last time you experienced sheer silence. It is rare in our culture. We surround ourselves all the time with voices, real or technical….music, chatter, news, even when we are not truly listening. The sounds, I believe, help us to believe we are not alone. Some people keep the television or radio on 24/7 as background noise, a virtual soundtrack for the ordinary tasks of their day. Even in church, we fill the worship hour with as much as we can pack in…words, music, more words…..if we pray too long in silence, people get fidgety.
Last year at about this time I began a three month renewal leave. During that time I spent quite a bit of time in silence, sometimes intentional, other times it was just the nature of what I was doing and the fact that no other human being was around. As an extrovert, it could have been challenging. But what I found was that in the silence, after a period of time my "monkey chatter" turned off. My mind stopped jumping ahead to "what next?" and stayed in the now. The silence became a Presence.Like Elijah I learned that the Holy One was in the silence.
Mother Teresa said "God is the friend of silence." We see and experience things differently in silence. Instead of being poised on the end of my chair to respond to something someone has said, already preparing my exposition before I have finished listening to the words of the other, to sit in silence and listen, really listen, is a powerful practice. To walk around the lake without words…to drive home without the background of radio…brings a different perception to the ways we move in the world.. The silence invites us to live in a deeper way.
Today, I invite you to find a time, no matter how small, to be in silence. We are not alone…..the Presence of the One who lives and breathes in all things waits with us in the quiet places. Shhhh…..