by David Speas
Psalm 62:1 — For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
I have a confession to make: I don’t like silence. When driving, I call people. When working out, I listen to music. When mowing, I zone out to podcasts. It’s so bad that I use noise to mask out noises. To get peace from sound, I turn up the sound. How weird is that!?
A couple of months ago I finally came to terms with the extent of my addiction. I had just hopped in my car and rang up my brother when he asked, “Where’re you headed?” Since I hadn’t told him I was driving, I asked him how he knew what I was doing. “That’s easy. You always call people when you’re in the car. The whole family knows, if David calls you, he’s on the road…”
For this year’s fast, I felt led to give up some of life’s unnecessary noises. These are things that aren’t sinful but that keep me from experiencing a healthy amount of silence in my life. Things like Facebook, and ESPN, and YouTube. And I’ve got to say, it hasn’t been easy. More than once I’ve pulled out my phone to catch up on the latest news or to check Facebook page or see what time a game started only to see a void where the app used to sit.
David said in Psalm 62:1, “For God alone my soul waits in silence…” The Psalmist understood that a certain amount of silence is healthy in our lives. Because it’s in the silence that God often works. I mean, think about it. God speaks in the silence. It’s in the silence that we reflect on the goodness of God. It’s in silence that we often contemplate the needs of others. It’s in silence that we surrender our wills to the will of God. Silence gives us time to remember our blessings. It’s in silence that we reflect on our choices. Silence gives us a space to demonstrate faith in God. “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.”
No, I don’t think we should go back to medieval times and cloister like monks. No, I’m not suggesting we force some sort of introversion upon ourselves. That’s not the point. I’m suggesting that, if we are to be balanced Christians, we need periods of healthy silence in our lives.
How about we give God some quiet time this week in which to work? How about we “lean in” to the discomfort of silence? How about we resist the urge to fill every airwave with noise? And maybe we’ll find that there’s a greater blessing in the silence than we ever imagined.
If you are following our “Daily Bible-Reading Plan,” today's passages are John 6 & Psalm 65.