Silence Everyone!

- By Rick Carder

We live in a noisy world. There are so many distractions and interruptions in our day that it’s crowding out our free time. Most homes have an average of four televisions and with the growth of mobile devices it seems as if we are always online. In our cars we turn on the radio and in our offices we need background noise. We are contributing to the volume of noise that creates decimal levels that can permanently damage our hearing.

There are times when even the crises of life impact our perspective of God. We are tempted to allow the storms of life to steal the calm of His presence in our lives.

Roman’s 8:28

My family lived in the west suburbs of Chicago where the planes flew over our home every 15 seconds. We were in the direct path to O’Hare airport which was at the time the busiest airport in the country. When we first moved there we seem to notice the planes all the time but the longer we live there the more they just became the background noise. It was the noice that drown-out our quiet time. After a while we hardly noticed the noice at all. That became just as true about the highway traffic where the sounds of vehicles on our street next-door & the roar of the highway several miles away. Noise was all around us.

In the storms of life we are reminded that God is in control. As Romans 8:28 reminds us that "...all things work together for good..." Just as in crisis and in our busyness, we are missing out on God’s plan for our lives.

Our lives are just as busy, filled with all kinds of activities that seem to force itself upon us. Whenever we would go out-of-town we would often remarked about how quiet it was. Most remarkably was during tragic days of 911 when all of the airtraffic were grounded. The silence was nearly deafening. We grew so used to the noise of the engines that when they were silenced it was eerie.

We call this phenomenon "White Noise", when the piercing roar becomes the background and overtime we learn to tune it out. At first during the evenings when we would open the windows in the summer it was hard to sleep because of the amount of background noise that we found it somewhat familiar over time  & it would cause us to slumber; like a Lullaby song.
The prophet Elijah mistakenly thought that God would be heard in the unmistakable sounds of thunder and wind. You can’t blame him for that because after all, God is mighty so it’s no surprise that he would look for God in what was familiar to his understanding.

As we examine closely Elijah‘s experience I quickly note that God was not found in the roar of the noise but rather in the quiet whisper of something unfamiliar to him. Without going into too much depth we recognize quickly that Elijah was the prophet of God that demonstrated clearly the power of Almighty God in-which fire fell from the heavens and destroyed. Perhaps Elijah simply got used to the noise like many of us do as well.

When we examine more closely the word whisper in this passage we find that in Hebrew it can also mean silence. God spoke in the silence of the moment. Perhaps we like Elijah are so busy that we allow the White Noise of the winds and the crashing thunder of our busyness to keep us from hearing the voice of God?

And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. I Kings 9:11-13

Take a look at your schedule and see how much "white space" you have and what room you have for silence. Make a list of all the things that distract you that we might call the, "White Noice" of your busy life. 

Next, make it a goal to put more space in your schedule, eliminating the White Noise that could often drown out the Lord’s message in your life. The discipline of silence brings comfort to the soul and strengthens our discovery of God’s majesty. Sometimes words just get in the way.

Third, set aside time, even schedule it if you have to for some silence in your life. You might be amazed at what the Lord says to you as that still quiet whisper is heard in the stillness at that moment.