Silence, part two

Silence is hard to find.
Perhaps I speak only for my fellow suburbanites and other urbanites, but we are constantly being bombarded or at least surrounded by noise.

When was the last time you found silence?

When was the last time you rested in silence? --took a long, deep breath and contented yourself just to be?

Silence can be elusive.  It is not just auditory noise that constantly shadows us--focal noises such as people talking, music, etc, or peripheral sounds such as the background noises of roads and highways, the babble of people in public places, or even the hum of electricity or the air conditioner.  These auditory sounds are definitely prevalent, but they are not the only noise around us.

There is visual noise, too.  Loud billboards, signs, bright lights often flashing or changing, colors, clutter, the double-noise of television, glowing computer screens with endless information and pictures and friends and Facebook...all beckoning, calling for your attention.  Then, of course, there are people, too, and colors and clothing, faces smiling, stressed, relaying drama or hopes or fears...all looking for someone to listen.  Visual noise crowding our sight so it is often difficult to focus attention even on one person, one sign, one object.  Even the calm of night is disrupted by the city's need to see and know all things all the time (or so they try): often the sky at my home is a peculiar shade of dark orange.  This even late at night, when all things are supposed to be dark, and we ought to see stars.

There is the noise of motion all around.  I am in motion; you are in motion; the world is spinning, but we don't have to be...at least not all the time.  The highway becomes a roaring blur of vehicles.  The sidewalks and shopping malls are full of people interested more in point B than point A, but maybe point C is what you're really looking for...and the same for buses, trains and airplanes.  Sometimes it doesn't matter where you're going as long as you're going.  Do we think if we keep enough motion with enough speed and constancy, we must create the illusion of a sense of purpose?  Or are we moving because the more places we go, the less purpose we find?  Do we move because it's so easy that if point A isn't fulfilling, or quite what we wanted, it's simple enough to jump over to point B and give that a try, after which point C just might be a better option?  We fill our lives with so many things and appointments and places to go that a certain amount of constant motion is necessary.  And if we keep going and don't let ourselves stop, maybe we won't realize that we're getting tired and worn down, like a car wheel in constant use, and if we don't realize it, we won't have to rest.

Resting often feels unnatural; uncomfortable.
We're too used to the hurry.
Maybe sometimes we forget that we were meant to slow down every once in a while...
that it's okay to rest; to take a break...
to breathe.

Maybe.

Now.  I'm not saying that noise is inherently wrong.  I don't think it is.  I believe we were made to enjoy the rich colors and textures of the world, and light, and people.  They are good.  And sound, too--the ability to communicate through conversation is good, and I think we should be able to appreciate music, and the noises of nature and humankind.  Motion, too, has its place.  Without motion, we should find it hard to accomplish things or go anywhere.

 Motion is necessary.

But I think this noise becomes a distraction--especially when they become constants from which it is difficult to escape.  Have you tried to find silence?  Have you tried it in the midst of suburbia, or the midst of the city?  It's hard.  But still important.

Not only is it good to slow down and breathe; relax and renew, but it is vitally important to take time to quiet the soul and rest in God.  Oh, yes--time.  Time, too, feels elusive, doesn't it? You never have enough; always busy with something, never enough hours in a day, etc, etc.  Oh, I know. I know.  But all of us have exactly the same amount of time available to us, and believe it or not, you can control the time you're given. Dictate your schedule a bit rather than letting it fully dicate you.  This sounds harsh, but I suggest that it is worthwhile--necessary, even, to move your schedule around a bit to set aside time for silence.  Time to just be.

Isn't "quiet time" enough?  A few minutes with God snatched here and there?  Yes and no, I think.  The problem is, many of us (I, too, am guilty) try to organize and manage time with God the way we try to manage our homework, classes, appointments and meetings.  Not always.  But sometimes.  It's also easy to get impatient, thinking about all the things I have to do.  "Sorry, God; I have too much homework. Only ten minutes today."  Sometimes I even deny Him those ten paltry minutes.

I have let the things of the world become distractions which clutter my mind, and I mix up my priorities. Since when is homework more important than God?  Since when is my social life more important than God?  They are important, no doubt, but God existed long, long before any of these material things did, and He will exist far beyond them.  It is in God, not homework, that I "live and move and have [my] being." (Acts 18:28)  It is God who created me, and did so for a specific purpose.  Thus, my reason for living should be purely Him, not homework or friends.  And it is He who determines my life, that I should live from one day to the next, and how I shall live those days.  And when this world fades, He is the One who will remain forever.  Anything else that remains will do so solely in Him.

My priorities get so distressingly skewed.


God is worth the time set aside for Him.

I can only pray for strength to set aside this time for, by myself, I can do nothing.

Again, God is worth the time set aside for Him.


In my next post, I will focus more on beauty of silence specifically.