John and Kathy Deisher

One Call, One Harvest, 50 Teams

silence

Silences

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[Spiritual direction} listens to the Silences between the spoken Sounds.”

— Eugene Peterson
“[Spiritual direction} listens to the Silences between the spoken Sounds.” — Eugene Peterson

Photo by Hannah Donze on Unsplash

It isn’t hard to find places of silence.

What is hard is finding the desire to be in those places.

We fill our lives with the sounds of man…noise that follows us all day. News, social media, music, chats. Sounds that speak to us of our own importance. Sounds that we hope provide answers. Sounds that mask our true fear.

We are fearful of the silences.

In the silences, doubts can now be heard. Words that were used to harm us, shame us, repeat themselves over and over in the silences. In the silences we play over and over again the failures of our lives. We despair.

So we drown our fears in sound.

But, it is in the silences that we also find God. He waits there because he is the answer to those doubts. He is the answer to those fears. He is the one who turns death into resurrected life.

He answers not with words, but with his presence—his presence in the silence with love, acceptance, approval, direction, comfort, patience.

We have to desire to be in the silences and listen. There we will find God.

A Day of Silence

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“In order to pray I have to be paying more attention to God than to what people are saying to me; to God than to my clamoring ego. Usually, for that to happen there must be a deliberate withdrawal from the noise of the day, a disciplined detachment from the insatiable self.” 

― Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction

I just returned from our annual Spirit Walk retreat. This is a time to pray and reflect away from the routine of daily life. As a part of the retreat, we have a Day of Silence—12 hours of no talking/no music/no media.

Just a Bible, a journal, and a prayerful awareness of God.

The most common comment after our time of silence is how loud everything sounds, and how hard it is to utter those first words that break the silence (though one of our interns burst into the dining hall loudly greeting everyone with a hearty “Hello, people!”). For some, it is the first time they have been silent for an extended period and left to listen for the voice of God. But, in the silence, their prayers could echo what heard what God is saying to them.

To whom am I listening? If I am surrounded by music, podcasts, meetings, i.e. daily life, all-day everyday, what are all those voices telling me? Where are my prayers? Where is my attention? Where am I finding out who I am?

It may not be possible to have a 12 hour time of silence, but there is time every day for 30 minutes or an hour. Deliberately withdraw from the day. Turn from the noise of the day to the still, small voice of God. Pray in disciplined silence. Let him reveal who you are.

And then loudly greet everyone with “Hello, people!”.