--------silence-------

My Bible Study group is currently watching a group of DVDs done by a man named Rob Bell and a company called NOOMA. Each DVD is short and concise and the only person who appears typically in each DVD is Rob Bell. While they are short, they are thought provoking and power-punching.

Todays DVD was about 10 minutes long and the topic was "silence". The majority of the ten minutes we sat staring at a TV that was silent and dark with an occasional phrase that would flash across the screen. Phrases such as:

*Do you own a cell phone?
*Does your cell phone have voice mail and email access?
*Do you own a TV?
*Do you own more than one TV?
*How often do you find solitary moments?
*Is there a connection between our noisy lives and the inability to hear God speaking to us?
*Looking at your life, is it a life that says that you want to be able to hear God speak to you?

There were many more, but that is just an example. The silence in the room we sat in watching this was deafening. Which is, I suppose what the point is.

Why are we, as a society, uncomfortable with silence? Because it requires us to think? Because we are so accustomed to business, chaos and noise that silence is unwelcome? Because we may actually hear God speaking to us in His still, quiet voice? All of the above?

When the TV was silent, the room dark and no other noise could be heard except the muffled noise of the kids downstairs in the nursery, it was rather un-settling.

Silence is difficult to achieve. But it is highly under-rated and sorely under-utilized. How easy is it to have moments of solitude without any noise with young children running around consistently asking for things, or just being children? When our cell-phones are on, our TVs are on, the radio is on, the traffic is roaring, the computer is on. Pretty much impossible.

My life has been difficult lately. I have been searching for ways to make it easier. To make things less complicated. Maybe the answer has been staring me in the face all along. Silence. To hear God's still voice. Without all the noise.

I turned off the radio in my car on my way to work today. Silence was still difficult to achieve. My thoughts still raced through my head. Like all things, I suppose, silence will take practice.

As I got close to my office, in my effort to achieve silence, I barely noticed a car in front of me coming to a screeching hault. As I braked hard to avoid rear ending it, my eyes fell to a bumper sticker stuck to the car. The message? Silence is Golden. Coincidence? You decide.

Be still and know I am God. Psalms 46:10

(**side note: Care Bear has a new post up today. She enjoyed reading all the nice comments she got on her first post. Thanks for saying hi to her.)