Silence?

Why do we find it so hard to be in silence? I think we just might be afraid of it. Have you ever been around someone in the hospital and tried not to talk so much? Or had a friend that was going through a really hard time and been able to just sit with them in silence. Sometimes nothing is the very best thing you can say, as opposed to It's going to be ok. or God is teaching you a lesson. While these thing maybe true, I don't think they need to be said or heard for that matter.


I can't tell you how many people think I'm plumb crazy to spend an hour in pray. I've heard everything from I talk to God for 10 minutes than I'm done. to I fall asleep after 3 minutes. Now let me just state, an hour is something you need to work up to. Try starting with 15 minutes! Try starting for that matter. 


I think that words that don't come from silence are probably not worth saying. They are more like words that need to be unloaded than they are communication. I can talk about this cuz I used to be the champ at this, and sometimes...I still am.


Take a Psalm, any one of them, and read it out loud, then just sit with it. Don't start talking to God, just sit there and reread it slowly. Ask God what he has to say to you, then just sit there and keep your corn-hole shut! After 15 minutes, get up and go on with your day. The next day do the same thing. See if you don't start hearing that still small voice inside of you.


Blaise Pascal said all human evil comes into the world because people can't sit still in a chair for thirty minutes! I don't know if that's true, but it could be. Maybe what he's saying is when we run from silence we run from our souls, ourselves, and therefore, from God. Richard Rohr says if he was to advise one thing for spiritual growth, it would be silence. I agree with that more now than I ever have before. 


Maybe that's why as we get older, we listen more and speak less. It's not that we have less to say, in fact, I would bet we have more to say. It's that the others need to unload their words on us. I'd like to think that as you unload your words, you would be making space to receive in silence. If we don't take time to be in silence, how do we ever expect to receive?