Keeping Silence – why be affraid of it?
When I first started working in ministry the whole “contemporary worship” thing was a big issue. I remember talking with a music minister that was in the middle of reading a book on contemporary worship; he explained to me that for a service to be contemporary there should be no down time; not more than 5 seconds of silence.
This is a sad idea.
The other day I stumbled upon Habakkuk 2:20 which says “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” This verse hit me in the face when I read it and has continued to beat on my consciousness ever since. I am struggling with questions like: what does it mean to “keep silence before Him”? Do I ever have silence in my life? Do I embrace silence or run from it? Is silence before God an integral part of my relationship with Him or something that I drown out with continuous noise? Why am I afraid of the silence?
It seems to me that silence is a necessity in our daily walk with Jesus, and yet, we avoid it like the plague. Silence allows for and encourages reflection, which is scary. When submerged into total silence we are left with only our thoughts and the Holy Spirit’s whisper, inevitably bringing us to some degree of conviction followed by God’s leading. Both of these make us uncomfortable and push us to change, which we tend to resist.
Think about it, we live in a world that embraces “self” over all other things. One of the keys to embracing “self” is to feel good about your own selfishness. The best way to do that is to drown out all opposing voices, like our conscience and the Holy Spirit. And so, since our world embraces “self” it also embraces noise because that helps to maintain selfish thinking.
By living in a constant state of noise we never have the time or ability to reflect on our lives, the good and the bad. We are never really able to asses where we are as individuals and determine how we can improve. We simply live our lives so narrowly focused on keeping forward motion, that we never realize the wheels we are riding on are wobbling around about to pop off. Then, we suddenly find ourselves bottomed out and asking why.
Maybe it’s time for some self assessment. Maybe it’s time for conviction, growth, and leading. Maybe it’s time for silence before a Holy God that not only deserves our reverent, silent respect, but also asks it of us.
Maybe it’s time for the Church to gather together to keep silence.
Please share your thoughts and ideas, this is a tough one…
June 27th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I think silence is crucial. See, for example, lectio divina practice. And I have requested (to little avail) a lengthening of the moment of silence in our worship service which occurs right before corporate confession. I have been in some (Anglican) worship services where they really let you stew in your own juice during this part – maybe a minute or two of silent reflection and confession to God.
I don’t go to church to be entertained.
June 27th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I taught a series on the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life in the spring, and the discipline of silence was one of them. This was one of the hardest ones for me to teach on, as there is very little silence in my life. With (now 2) kids under the age of 3, silence is difficult to come by without a major amount of intentionality. I do think, however, after studying the practice in the early church fathers’ writings and some great modern resources, that this is a crucial discipline for spiritual growth. It’s in those times of silence when you can practice self-evaluation at the deepest levels, when you can listen for the voice of God in a way that’s impossible in our fast paced culture, and when you can meditate on God’s Word without the competing distractions of our lives. It’s crucial, but most neglect it and few are intentional about making it happen. I think it’d be an awesome addition to worship – definitely something I’ll be trying in the near future at our church.
June 27th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Great post! I’ve been enjoying askingY for a while, but I don’t respond very quickly, however this is a very good point- I think the devil instructs his minions to keep us busy. We drive in cars with radio, sure we might even be listening to good music that glorifies God, but that is almost the only place where we get away from the busy world for a while- why not use that time (or some of it) to contemplate?
Everywhere we go, it seems people are scared of silence, even public bathrooms need sound systems. I like the idea of quiet time in church, but I’ve never seen it practised, other than for a very brief time of silent prayer.
June 29th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Without a doubt, we have been conditioned (though our own hearts leave us ripe for this conditioning) to run from silence. We don’t mind being silence ourselves, as long as their is loudness around us. This makes me think of the “Silence is Golden” spats that run before any feature movie today…this of course is followed by a LOUD sound check by Lucas LTD. This is very exciting and fun for us, but Digital surround sound is not how we are going to enter God’s presence. Great post, Adam!
June 29th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Yes! This is one of the elements I miss from the very uptown church I attended when I became a Christian. It is a question that is floating around my church at this time. What happened to the reverence we once knew before the service started? My church is like a family reunion on Sunday mornings instead of being a time of prayer and preparation. The family part is wonderful but the family that is silent before the Lord together stays together (sorry).
June 30th, 2007 at 6:55 am
I might ask this in another post, but for the moment I thought I would ask here. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to integrate silence into our lives in a real and meaningful way? I’m still thinking on this… What do you think?
June 30th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Just a quick stab but I’d suggest that Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline has quite a bit to say on this topic, in the Solitude chapter.
In addition, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (in Life Together), talks about this some. He talks about how a person who can’t be alone should beware of community, and that a person who can’t be in community should beware of being alone. The idea of course is that in a believer’s life, there MUST be both silence and sound. If we are never silent before God, what do we possibly have to bring to the body?
But I think to create silence requires significant steps in the modern lives we lead. Some practical things I’ve started doing that have created more space for these types of silent moments include: driving in silence (i.e. cutting back on phone calls, ipod, radio, etc.) and also we’ve stopped watching tv at home, except for something we really care about watching (i.e. no more turning on the tv just to see if something’s on).
Just those simple steps have created a good deal of space that sometimes results in my being silent before and aware of God.
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:20 am
I can say this from my own lack of being silent before God: whatever practical steps we take have to be very intentional. Without this, “noise” will inevitably lift up its ugly head and thwart the whole thing.