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Silence
"Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.” (Job 6:24)

The noise was deafening, but then again it always is. After all I was standing amidst tens of thousands of people, waiting in line to buy my wife a diet soda at our local baseball stadium. My wife and I had been given some tickets to a Ray’s baseball game by some dear friends, who were unable to make the game, and we were making a date of it. The night couldn’t have been any better. Not only did I have my wife at my side, but we had great seats, it was 80’s night and there was a free concert after the event.

Stadiums, however, are noisy. Between the loudspeakers call the “CHARGE” every so often and the deafening roar of the crowd, it is hard to hear even the person sitting next to you at times. We had yet to go to our seats and were jostling and jockeying for position in the soda line when the TV screens mounted all over the stadium lit up
with the image of a local military honor Guard bearing our flag and a woman singing the National Anthem. Almost instantly the stadium hushed. Ticket takers stopped taking tickets. Vendors ceased their fervent cries to get fans to buy “peanuts and popcorn.” Cell phones were put away. Cash registers stopped ringing. People stopped pushing a shoving and jostling and jarring to come to a complete standstill. About the only sound one could hear was the rush of men and women to remove their hats and place their hands on their hearts.

Now, this may happen every time you go to a game, but in my experience it does not. Perhaps it was because this was also Memorial Day weekend. I do not know. What I do know is that I was touched by the widespread and awesome display of respect and adoration for our flag, country and the men who have served and are serving her in the armed forces. For but a few moments all was quiet…all was still, leaving one to really listen to those words and call to remembrance the grand principles of liberty and freedom and the grand responsibility and challenge they come with.

Silence is powerful. It is the light so often that shines deep within and allows us the truly be in tune with who we are and what we have made of our lives. In silence, though it may be uncomfortable, we can come to grips with our deeds and desires and ferret out their pros and cons. In silence, we can hear and understand and fully digest the will of God for our lives and find the answer s to life’s most puzzling questions.

As Christians we often are called to pray, and we perceive that prayer as our communication to God. Do we, however, see it as two-sided? In Psalm 4:3 David says, “…The Lord hears when I call to Him.” In the very next verse we are told to “ponder in your hearts and on your beds, and be silent.” Why? We are to be silent because God will answer or has given answer and we must come to its realization. This means we must see past the things that can clutter the mind. We must have focus and clarity.

In this day, try injecting a bit of silence into your life and focus on what the Lord is doing for you. ❦