All Fall Silent

Silence is rare for most of us.
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First, there's the noise we don't choose. The noise of phone calls, traffic, advertisements, crowds.
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If we are honest, this actually accounts for a small amount of the noise in our lives.
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Most of it is noise we DO choose. The T.V. on in the background. Music on while we drive. We could silence our cell phones but we don't. Many people now fall asleep to the T.V. We surround ourselves with noise.
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I think we do this because we are afraid of what we'll find in the silence.
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It's the same reason many of us are so "busy." I have come to believe that "busy" is a modern illness most of us are trapped in.
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Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is at hand. Zephaniah 1:7
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Silence is so good for us. First, it helps us hear things we don't usually hear in the cacophony of blended sound. This time of year, the blessed sound of leaves rustling is easily covered up by noise of my own choosing.
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Second, beyond merely hearing, it helps us listen. There is a deep beauty - the very image of God - in those around us. If we are silent long enough to really listen to them, we get glimpses of it.
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Third, silence helps us quiet busy-ness of our minds. It helps us realize that all of the things that we think define who we are (job, family, other people's expectations) can all fade away...and then we are still there...still who God created us to be...not defined by others, but defined by God.
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Zephaniah's words above may sound harsh, like a parent silencing a disobedient child. Instead, this morning, I hear them as an invitation to the deep. Like the silence I experienced the first time I stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or the holiness of the first moments we held our daughter as she slept on her first night of life, this isn't a silence forced on us...it is a silence of awe and reverence.
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Today, may you be bold enough to take some moments of silence...to quiet the other things that claim to define you, and to rest in your identity as beloved.
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PRAYER:
Let us take off our shoes in the presence of your holiness. Let us sit in silence and listen to your voice. Let us bask in your glory as we are being refilled to be your loving hands and feet until you return. Amen!*
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*Prayer taken from the Moravian Daily Texts