Silence is a commodity that is greatly lacking in our modern world. No matter where you go there is something. You have advertisements blaring at you as you fill your gas tank, or elevator music is being piped out at the airport as you wait for a taxi, and doctors’ offices will have a television with some talk show. There seems almost impossible to find a place where you can just sit and let silence engulf you as you meditate and contemplate.

This bombardment of noise has even invaded us while in church. Our need for constant entertainment and distraction in today’s society is so great that we can’t sit quietly in church and think on God. In my own congregation during the Lord’s Supper (as we call the Eucharist) the song leader finds it necessary to start a song. Could we not just spend some time in silent communion with our Lord?

I think it would help all our souls if we just spent an hour or two every week or so just sitting and being quiet. I have found that when you sit without the distractions of music, screens, or conversation it is amazing what your mind will wander to. I’ve come to believe those are the times that my musing may not be so much my mind but the Spirit of God whispering to me. It is at those times when things that once seemed so murky suddenly become so clear, and things so complicated are suddenly so simple.

It was in the quiet of the cave that Elijah heard the still small voice of God. We need more of that in these times. I suggest we all find a place where we can just sit, listen to the birds in the trees, and wonder at God’s creation, and while in prayer and meditation hear that small whisper of the Holy Spirt that dwells within us.

#silence, # meditation