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Can you hear it? ...Silence?

What do you think of silence? How do you experience it? Does it make you uncomfortable? Would you rather have the radio on, or some other kind of noise around you to fill it? It's not uncommon for us to want to fill the "silence" so we don't have to hear it.

Look around you. Runners run with their headsets on. Workers around you play the radio in the background. Students study with the TV on. Personally, I enjoy listening to the radio or the TV - just to have something playing in the background. But the question is do we use these sounds to avoid the silence altogether? Are we too uncomfortable with silence to stay with it for any length of time?

What if we did seek out silence? It's pretty hard to find it in the world we live in today. No matter where you do, there's always the buzz of something mechanical. In my condo it's the air conditioner coming on, or the ice maker filling with water or dropping the cubes, my phone ringing, or the whirr of the fan on my laptop. Outside it's a car driving by, the landscapers mowing or blowing leaves, a dog barking, or an airplane flying overhead.

The noise is hard to escape. Silence in today's world doesn't just happen. If you want to find it, you'll have to intentionally seek it out.

I believe we are desperately in need of silence. We so want to hear God to speak to us and yet I believe the noise is so loud that even if He did speak, we are unable to hear Him. We need silence - the kind of silence that is peaceful and renewing. The kind of silence where God can speak to us and we can actually hear Him.

In 1st Kings there's an amazing story of Elijah's encounter with God. Elijah is up on the mountain, in the presence of God. He knows God is near. He's told God is going to pass by. What is it going to be like? If God came near, what would He look like, how would He sound, would I even recognize Him?

In 1st Kings, it says, there is a strong wind, so strong it splits the mountains and breaks rocks in pieces. Maybe the wind is God? But it says the Lord was not in the wind. And then, after the wind there is an earthquake. Maybe God is in the earthquake? But it says the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there is fire - the heat, flames, and smoke. Maybe that's what God looks like? But God was not in the fire. And after all these - wind, earthquake, fire - finally there is the sound of silence.

Elijah wraps his face in his mantle. There, in the powerful silence, Elijah knows he is in the presence of the Lord, and he shields his face. Elijah knew how to recognize God.

In our day and age we've pretty much seen it all, haven't we? In the last 50 years we've been to the moon, we've seen the invention of cell phones, computers, the internet – just to name a few. We've experienced advances in technology that have changed everything from the way we communicate with each other and travel to how and what we eat. We've seen the power of a strong wind and the kind of damage it can leave behind. We've seen the earth shake and tremble and the devastation it can bring. We've felt the heat of fire and seen its destructive powers.

But maybe the thing that is still left, what remains unexplored, what is truly the final frontier for us - is our own spiritual depths and the silence that allows us to be in touch with that spiritual depth.

In Matthew, chapter 26, Jesus knows He's about to be betrayed. Following the last supper Jesus goes to Gethsemane. Scripture doesn't specifically tell us why He goes to Gethsemane – but based on the rest of the Scriptures, I believe Jesus chose Gethsemane in order to be alone with God.

Oh… a quiet time alone with God! It is something I long for and desire. It is the kind of silence that is rare and to be treasured.

Why is treasure always hidden from us?

I believe it is the "pursuit" of whatever it is we long for – the "treasure" – that actually brings "value" to the thing we desire. Things we long for, look for, and seek become of supreme value to us and its value increases the longer we must hunt for it. Sometimes the very thing we are hunting for resides within us.

I wonder how many of us have ignored the treasures within, and failed to recognize them? Maybe silence is one of those treasures - hidden underneath the noise, activity, and the sheer volume of what comes at us all day long. But deep within, it is there, waiting for us to explore it and to experience it, and to know from the power of that silence something of God himself.

From wind and earthquake and fire, beyond them, is the most powerful thing of all - a silence that can turn us toward God and enable us to reclaim a peace within us that nothing can shake.

Why is it that we think God is going to write his message to us in the sky? Or we think we can tune into a radio station and hear his deep, booming voice? God speaks in a soft voice. He speaks in quietness, in silence. God is the God of wonders, but He is also the God of whispers.

God interrupts. He breaks through the silence.

Elijah heard the voice of God. Do you? Do you want to hear God speak to you?

If we want to hear from God, we need to put ourselves in a place where God can best get through to us. For Elijah, it was on the mountain of God. He was in the right place to hear God speak. Are you?

Where's your place of sanctuary? Where is your place of quiet? Where is your mountain of God? Where is the best place God can break in on you? Find or develop a quiet place designed for silence and solitude.

The silence that enfolded Elijah when he encountered his inner voice, suggests we too periodically need to seek silence, in order to hear the whisper of God.

Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough, to hear. God can't be heard amid the noise and restlessness. God is the friend of the silence. He can be heard, if we will listen.

Listening for God is a spiritual discipline. It's a special kind of listening, where one listens with the heart, as much as with the ears. Where one sees with the heart, as much as with the eyes.

Listen! Listen!

Can you hear Him?

Are you listening?

He is calling your name.

"Point of Reference" from Fred Price

A Broken Spirit And Contrite Heart