Silence

Thursday Talk Story 4-30-09 #11 Silence "For God alone my soul waits in silence..." Psalm 62:1 Silence is a vanishing commodity. Where can we find a moment of peace and quiet today? In our cars? In bed at night? In a library, monastary, cabin in the woods? Silence is the room where we can meet God. God comes to us in all the time, but we don’t know it because we are preoccupied. My mom often said she needed to have her "quiet time" in the morning. Before everyone else was at the table for breakfast or late in the evening she would read her devotions and her Bible. When we kids were in junior high and high school, she tried to have a "family quiet time" after dinner, but often we three would distract her silence, readings and prayer with our antics. But her example had its effect. She made room for a Word from God each day. Like the Psalmist, mom knew that an intentional time of silence allows God’s Word to meet us. As we let His Word and Spirit in, God speaks to our hearts. That encounter is spiritually powerful and strengthening. The disciples learned that truth after the Resurrection. The risen Christ met them as they were silently hiding behind locked doors of fear. He said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Jn 20:21 They were transformed! His Word and Spirit made them new people. As we read Christ's Word in silence He empowers us to be his people today.

Then as we go into our day, everything becomes new. His forgiving Word launches us into a new way of life marked by peace, friendship and service to God and others. The past is dead and gone…the new life has begun. A moment of quiet with the Risen Word can change everything.


Risen One, thank you for giving us your peace today as we open ourselves to your Word in silence. Thank you for redeeming, equipping and sending us forth into the world as your people. Amen.