Observing the Silence

As we enter into the Christmas season and approach the start of a new year it only seems natural to move into a mode of reflection. We look back to the past year, the good, the bad, the fun, the boring and we talk about how we can improve ourselves and our lives for the coming year. If I may, I would like to make a suggestion on something I think we all can improve on and that would be silence. In the month of December Solid Rock will be focusing a lot of our time on silence, listening to God and through that listening, figuring out how to respond to God. Sitting in silence is not easy. Try sitting in complete silence for 5min. Go ahead, give it a try right now, I’ll wait……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Good, I bet that felt like 20min! But over time as you do it more, it becomes easier. You learn to focus your breathing and your attention. Of course I speak as if I am a pro at this and I am most certainly not! I, like many of us, need to work on finding quite time.

So what do you do during this silence, you ask. Well focus on God of course! You see in your silence, you are able to speak with God more clearly. To often we pray a quick prayer as we are driving to and from where ever, or we rush through grace at dinner. There is nothing wrong with any of this, in fact it is terrific that you are praying! But praying is a two way street. God wants us to speak to him, but he wants us to hear him speak back! (Did I just blow your mind?) Yes, God is speaking back to you and when we pray in the midst of the craziness in our lives, it is very difficult to hear what God is saying back to us. And here in lies the most important part. God is speaking to us. Not necessarily spoken words or through angels like in the bible, but he is speaking to us in our hearts. It is not obvious and not always clear and this is why silence is so important.

When we are able to disconnect ourselves from the craziness of the world, shut off our phones, power down the computer, and turn off our brains to the billions of things we need to get done, or are worried about, we are able to better understand and hear God. He is not always easy to hear so the fewer distractions we have the better the chances are that we will hear him!

When I was a senior in high school, the church did a 24 hour pray vigil during holy week. People could sign up for 30min slots in the chapel and the youth would host it by staying the night and welcome people who came to pray in the middle of the night. My senior year I decided to try this out. I signed up for a 30min slot and around 3:30pm my time began. It was just me and God in the small chapel of the learning center. I had a lot going on, I was 3 months from graduating and preparing to head off to college. I hadn’t decided on where to go yet. It was between a very expensive private Lutheran college or Florida State. I wanted to go to the Lutheran college so badly but the financial burden it would have put on my family would have been very difficult. I couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t want me to go to a Lutheran college. I was struggling with a lot!

So my time started. Silence. Just me and God. It was funny because at no point did I feel alone. I began to have this conversation in my head...or maybe it was my heart. I don’t really recall, but I remember processing everything and throughout this 30min things seemed to become clear. I’ll admit, the first 10min were tough. I cried and fought for a little while. But after I settled down and listened to the silence things became easier. I remember the knock on the door at the end of the 30min. It flew by and I wasn’t ready to leave but the next person was there and ready to start their time. I left the chapel feel more comfortable then ever before. All of my problems hadn’t gone away, but I felt a comfort about things. The only way I can explain this is God’s presence speaking to me through my heart, calming me.

Since that experience, I’ve better understood the path God has led me on. Of course, I didn’t learn my lesson and I still do not spend as much time in silence. But every once in a while I do and that feeling of comfort comes back.

So what is God trying to speak to you about? Are you listening to what he is saying? Are you really sitting in silence or are you just sitting in a quite place thinking about the work you need to get done and what you are going to wear tomorrow at school? I challenge you all as we prepare for the birth of Jesus, spend time with him. He is the greatest gift we have and why waste it?! You wouldn't let that new Xbox 360 just sit there after Christmas morning would you? The silence rejuvenates you, allows you to operate smoother. It’s like when you’ve had your computer hooked up to a bunch of printers, the internet, and lots of other peripheral things. It operates slower and doesn't’ function as well. But when you disconnect it from everything and all you are running is just the hard drive, all of a sudden it is able to function at a higher level and handle tasks better. We need to disconnect from everything once in a while and just run off of God. When we do that and we plug back in, everything seems to run smoother.
So may you find silence in the craziness of this time of year. May you observe God working in your life and more importantly hear what he is saying and respond accordingly! God loves you and I do too!