Turning Up the Silence

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. –Mother Teresa 

Noise is a sound that causes disturbance. Restlessness is constant motion and activity that occurs as a result of anxiety or boredom. 

Disturbances. We don’t like them, but for some reason we live with them. The Boy Scout leaders hourly clog your email inbox with a barrage of clutter instead of communicating systematically and thoughtfully. The neighbor’s car alarm goes off in the middle of the night and the neighbor is out of town. It’s dinner time. The phone rings. The person wants to know your thoughts on healthcare and national defense or at least share with you their candidate’s position on healthcare and national defense. Disturbances are normal and normal isn’t working because God isn’t found in noise. 

Anxiety. It’s a negative feeling about upcoming and imminent events and uncertain and unforeseen outcomes. Kierkegaard calls anxiety the dizziness of freedom. Dizzy is no way to live. Anxiety is the lonely and scary place between “now” and “then.” Anxiety slowly chisels away, piece by piece, at the masterpiece God has created. (Ephesians 2:10) 

Boredom. Kierkegaard writes that boredom is the root of all evil. It is the despairing refusal to be oneself. Jesus says the thief comes to steal and take away but that Jesus comes to give us life in all its fullness. (John 10:10) Boredom is the hidden enemy who slowly and steadily steals the very thing God gives.

Noise. Restlessness. Disturbances. Anxiety. Boredom. This is not God’s plan for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11)

View from the swing

The father and son are sitting on the swing on the dock on the lake. It is dark. The clouds scatter throughout the nighttime sky and occasionally cover the waning moon. A gentle west wind blows over the lake and provides some relief from the southern Missouri heat and humidity. An owl can be heard in the distance. So can the small waves bumping against the dock. An occasional fish jumps out of the water. 

They sit in silence. No noise is present. No restlessness is present either. Only solitude and peace. The nearest connection to the Internet is a couple hundred yards away. The phone is turned off and put away for the night. The moment is as simple as it is sacred. 

The father wonders if he should be talking to the son or if the son should be talking to him. They don’t get many nights like this. They are busy people. One leads a church and coaches a soccer team and carts kids around from point A to point B and is a husband. The other is a student and a soccer player and a Boy Scout and a big brother. 

The father then wonders what they should talk about. The day’s activities: jet skiing and swimming, driving a John Deere Gator through the woods, and a walk through the hills. Or maybe the upcoming school year or the woman and the little boy who are up at the cabin. All good topics of conversation, for sure. 

And then he realizes something. Even though they aren’t talking, they are doing something more useful and more holy: they are communicating at the deepest level. 

The swing rocks back and forth. The little hand of the ten-year-old boy embraces the medium sized hand of the forty-year-old man. The boy puts his tired head on his dad’s shoulder. The dad moves his nose above the boy’s hair and inhales the comforting, sweaty smell of the boy. 

Occasionally one of them speaks. Usually to share what has been experienced in silence. After a laugh or a thought or a response, silence subtly makes her welcomed return. 

Some things can only happen in silence. Other things best happen in silence. The father and the son learn of such things on this night. 

Then the father thinks of another Father and Son who spent time together. The Bible doesn’t give a whole lot of details about the prayer life of Jesus, but the few details given are more than enough to make the case that connection to God comes not from noise or restlessness nor disturbances or anxiety or boredom, but from solitude and silence. 

Jesus prayed in lonely places. (Mark 1:35) He taught the masses to find a quiet closet, shut the door, and have a conversation with God. (Matthew 6:5-6) He sent the disciples ahead of him and went to the mountain to pray. (Mark 6:45-46) Even in Gethsemane, he told Peter and the brothers they could go so far, but no further. At the moment Jesus needed God the most the last thing he needed was noise. He needed James and John arguing about who was greater just about as much as he needed Peter telling him that Peter would never deny Him. So Jesus took a few more steps, fell to his face, and began his conversation with God. (Mark 14:32-35) 

Culture is full of noise and restlessness. Both are common, expected, and ordinary. But, noise and restlessness prevent us from experiencing God and embracing each other. iPads, iPods, iPhones, fifteen versions of ESPN, Twitter, text messaging, busyness, consumerism, Madison Avenue, email, and eBay provide enough noise to make a jet engine sound like wind chime during a gentle breeze and enough restlessness to turn an exhausted pre-schooler into an insomniac. Being constantly connected to the noise and restlessness of the world ironically and sadly disconnects us from the abundant love of God and the genuine love of others. We confuse busyness with significance, entertainment with joy, and vast connectedness with vital communication. Our basic human needs of genuinely knowing God and others and authentically being known by God and others are being lost in the confusion and complexity of the world. 

God simply says through the Psalmist: Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10) 

Unplug. Listen. Say “no” to what isn’t working. Rest. Relate. 

Turn up the silence. Listen to God. Be fully present with others. Discover and embrace your true self. Be still. Be silent.