Silence

One of the BHT patrons, Wyman Richardson, posted The Harrowing Silence: A Confession at his own blog, Communio Sanctorum.

It's a moving post, and it reminds me of how often I flee from silence. Seems like it's the way of the world to do so. Instead of silence and reflection, I'll crank the stereo, grab the TV remote, pop in an X-Box game, write on our novel, surf the Net, call someone just to talk, and the list goes on. Anything but the silence.

But Wyman's right. It is in silence when you meet God and see yourself for who you are. I write that last sentence, and then think to myself, well, yeah, no wonder I long for the clamor. Courage is needed to face the Almighty and my sin-blotched life in the same silent sitting. But it's in that same time I find out His true love for me as well. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not good at hearing from God. (I'm not good at the listening either.) But it is in the silence where reflection and oddball thoughts come to my mind. I loved how Wyman asked, "When was the last time I've thanked God for the birds?" That's sort of what I mean. It's only in silence that I'd open up my mind for trains of thought like that at all.

All of which means I need to slow down. No, even more, I need to stop. And listen.