I have no idea why this phrase jumped into my mind this morning except that God put it there and wanted me to think about it and pushed me to the computer immediately to write about it. It must be important so here goes. Selah.
Silence is golden. If silence is golden, then it must be valuable. If it's golden, then it must be rare. Hmmmm. I would guess that when most people hear that phrase Silence is Golden, they think it means to keep our mouths shut so that we don't insert a foot. Don't say the wrong thing. Just hush. Out of curiosity I did a word search and, in the Bible, silence is used most often as a verb as in "He silenced them." Often that meant not just quieting a problem but eliminating it. Yikes! I didn't think that was where I was supposed to go with this, so my mind continued to ponder the phrase Silence is Golden. I went to the dictionary and there the first definition of silence was absense of noise and the second was stillness.
So often today it seems that there isn't even just a few minutes in our day where there is silence, stillness. Friends, family, coworkers, cell phones and texts, music and the worst culprit of all, the television, eliminate just about any quiet or still time in our lives. We almost have to schedule a time for silence and stillness. And that time is so important. Not just to our mental health for a time to power down, but how can we truly connect in prayer with our Creator, our Savior, if the tv is blasting or if the little ding is going off on the cell phone indicating another text that we feel we must respond to immediately? How often have we stopped in the middle of prayer to see who was on the other end of that text?
When Jesus needed a time to connect with His Father, He went away from everyone to find that quiet stillness. With no interruptions from the outside, He was able to pray and to converse and to interact with God. He was able to express what He was going through and to hear back from God. Sometimes I'm so amazed that God can even get through to me because of everything going on and I live alone and work from home. It must be a hundred times more difficult for those with a growing family and a public workplace.
Years ago, I read a book titled The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. It was sort of a twelve step program designed to help an artist get past a creative block. One of the steps was to eliminate all reading for a week to sort of free up the mind, clean it out so that there was room for inspiration to enter. At that time, computers were for work and not entertainment. There were only a few tv stations, limited cell phone use and no ipods or ipads. If The Artist Way was updated, I think the author would suggest that we wean ourselves off some sort of technology for a week instead of reading. Imagine the amount of time we could free up if we just turned off the television for a week. Too much? Imagine turning it off for just one single day. Imagine the silence that would follow once we hit the power button to darken the screen and quiet the sound. Just thinking about it, I can almost take a deeper breath and feel my nerves start to power down too.
With the tv off and the cell phone off, imagine the feeling you would get of immediately being surrounded by something else. Just close your eyes and feel that little quickening in your spirit as you begin to feel God's presence. Take a few deep breaths and settle back into His arms as you open your heart and mind to the Holy Spirit moving within you and the warmth of boundless love circling you. Shhhhhhhh........... Don't speak. Just feel. Silence is golden.
Precious Lord, Jehovah Rapha,
You know the silence and quiet and stillness that we need each day to make an intentional and closer connection with You. Help us to recognize how and when we can bring that stillness into our lives more and more often so that we know better what it is to feel Your love and comfort surrounding us. Teach us how to listen for Your word and direction in that stillness. Bless us. Love us. Teach us. Show us. Help us to come closer to You in everything that we do. We know, Father, that we can talk with You at any time no matter what is going on in our lives but we're looking for that special quality time with You, that time when it is just the two of us. Let today be a starting point for that special time.
Thank You, Father. Thank You.
In Jesus' name we pray, the name of our precious Lord and Savior.
Amen
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