Harnessing The Silence

 

        Have you ever noticed that people don’t talk to each other anymore when you’re in a doctor’s office, or anywhere where ‘waiting’ is an essential part of the journey?  Even at the vet office when an animal is getting a check up, conversation is stilted and often abrupt. It’s like people don’t know how to socialize anymore.

I tend to be the odd person who will attempt to start a conversation with people in a long line at the cash register, or waiting in a doctor’s office….unless they are honed in and focused on their digital device, which is often just a game to pass the time.

Even in a restaurant people will have their phones right beside their plates so that if it pings they can take care of the message immediately.  I admit, I get horribly frustrated.  It's like the person across the table--with whom you're sharing a meal, is not nearly as important as the person sending the text you're getting from your phone. 

Other people will have some kind of noise in their home, like the TV or something to drown out the silence.  It almost seems like quiet is too threatening, and intrusive to the way we want to live.  I’m the reverse!  I want the quiet and can’t think if it’s noisy! 

I like music, but even with that, if I’m trying to focus on something, even that noise is a distraction!  

Some will say we’re afraid of our thoughts if it’s too quiet. I wonder if that’s true?  When it’s quiet, our thoughts come to the surface…our fears, doubts, questions and more.  I wonder if we think about those things we’re afraid we’ll somehow expose of what we don’t want others to know; or are afraid to even know about ourselves?

For me quiet is a place of peace.  It’s a place where I can find myself.  The quiet allows me to connect with God at times where I couldn’t, if it were ‘noisy.’  I like my quiet times when my mind wanders all over the place; sometimes flitting in so many directions, it seems like a cobweb, with absolutely no connectivity! 

But many times when my mind is jetting off somewhere, it’ll land on something I can seriously think about, write about, or even pray about.  I like the opportunity to work through the tangle and see where it leads me.  

It seems like in the silence is where I learn to trust God.  I know God can still the storm, both a physical one and the one in my heart when it’s fighting to make sense of loneliness, restlessness, impatience and a desire to make a difference.  It gets so twisted inside my head, I have to let Him sort it out.  

      But there is power in the Holy Pause.  God has the ability to calm me in the midst of chaos.  I still quake often when things go sideways, but I know if I’m steady in the ‘quiet time’ with Him, the meltdowns are a lot less dramatic!  

Photo Credit: Patients waiting using Social Media 

Photo Credit: People in Restaurant on Social Media 

Photo Credit:  Noise at home 

Photo Credit: Silence