Practicing silence
This past Sunday, Huub continued our sermon series called A New Way of Living by talking about rest, quietness, and the idea of sabbath. As we closed our service with 5 minutes of silence, I reflected on how good it is to follow the Lord into times of quietness, reflection, stillness, and silence. I also reflected on how long just 5 minutes of quiet seems in a room full of people who are working hard at doing nothing!
Jesus talked all the time about taking time away to connect with His Father God. He spent over a month in the desert, being alone and praying & fasting. He took time to find quiet places, he spent long nights in prayer and listening, and He taught his followers to do the same. In the Old Testiment, we see that not only were God's people called to rest by observing the Sabbath, but that God himself took time to rest and to enjoy the fruits of His creation.
In a book called Invitation to Solitude and Silence, Ruth Haley Barton gives a wonderful picture of why God speaks to us so often about spending time in silence or reflection: Imagine, she writes, that we take an empty jar and scoop up some dirty Amsterdam canal water into it! Imagine that we take the jar and shake it up. What happens is that the water and the dirt and the trash and the mud all become mixed up as they swirl around in crazy circles.
Our lives are like those jars of water, writes Barton, and she contends that the practice of silence is simply the act of setting the jar down. We don't have to try hard to be quiet, we don't have think hard about spiritual things, we don't have to be able to meditate intensily on a particular Bible verse. All those things can be helpful, but most of all, the simple act of being still helps our lives to begin to settle. In the same way that a jar full of dirty water will settle if it's left alone, silence in the Lord helps us to calm our hearts and to remind ourselves that it is God who is in control!
If you have never tried out this idea, here are a few ideas to get you started:
1. Find a comfortable chair in a quiet space
2. Set your alarm for 5 minutes
3. Take a deep breath, and sit quietly for 5 minutes (if 5 seems too long, begin with 2-3 minutes!)
4. If you need help because you get easily distracted, try meditating on this famous prayer: "Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." If your mind becomes busy, refocus using this prayer.
5. Try 'wrapping your day in silence' by doing this each morning and each evening for one week.
I want to encourage you to consider taking time to practice silence a few times as we approach Easter. In our quietness and rest, we are met by God, His power, and His presence!
Comments