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Entertaining silence
Normally our household is pretty quiet, sometimes the radio is tuned in, sometimes we have the TV turned on but a lot of the time we just enjoy the quiet. A few weekends ago we had a welcome change as our house was a flurry of activity there were nine extra people and five of them were six years old or younger, add to that three dogs and you have some noise. There were the sounds of little boys at play or at battle. There was occasionally one the little ones crying out to be fed or changed. There was laughter and loud conversation. It is always great to have the kids and grandkids come home but when they are home it is pretty hard to find quiet in the midst of the chaos. We know that our life is going to change when family comes home, we prepare for it. We plan to enjoy the commotion and we plan to rest when they are gone.
Our weekend with kids is how many live their lives, constant noise, constant activity, ordered chaos. People are always going and doing...but we must remember that the Psalmist commands us at some point in our lives to "be still and know God." (Psalm 46:10). There needs to be times of noise and celebration in our lives but there also needs to be times of silence. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania wisely noted, "True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment." He understood that constant noise and activity dull the mind and dampen the spirit. I wonder how different our lives would be if we planned and prepared as much for silence as we did for activity. Would we come to know God better through the silence? Would we come to know ourselves better?
The Psalmist would say on another occasion, "For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him." (Psalm 62:5) It would seem to me that silence can be an elusive quest. A person can't just program it into their calendar... "ok I'm going to schedule silence from 1:00 -- 2:00 today." No, silence is something we learn to adjust our lives to. We can be in a quiet place but still have our mind full of noise and activity. To truly find silence we must learn to wait upon the Lord. It is in the silence, that move away from the busyness and loudness of life, that God often reveals himself. The silence is there waiting for us if we will just still our lives and our minds long enough to experience it. I leave you with the sage advice of Will Rogers, "Never miss a good chance to shut up."