What's the Deal With Silence?
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| "...There the true silence is, self-conscious and alone." ~Edgar Allen Poe |
This is a biblical idea of course. One of the more famous passages on this is, of course, Elijah's experience of God in the cave. It was not the thunder or fire or wind that contained God's voice, but the still small voice that caused Elija to cover his head. I don't need to beat you over the head with this passage. Many a youth conference has told this story ad nauseam. It's a good story, don't get me wrong, but I'm afraid that at times it has desensitized us from silence, rather than highlighted the importance of it. But to take a step further back, why is it important anyway? All these people keep talking about it but does it really matter? Or are trads just being trads?
In psychology, there is a concept called the "cocktail party effect." Whenever you're at a loud concert but you're talking to your friend in the crowd, that's the cocktail party effect. Your brain prioritizes what noise is relevant to be listened to and what isn't, so the rest of the noise fades into the background and its less clear. Now there's more that goes on with this but I won't get into it since it's not necessary to our discussion. Anyways, the reason silence is important is that that is where we hear our own interior voice, and more importantly, God's voice. This cacophony of noise we surround ourselves with is employing the cocktail party effect against God. In the silence, we are forced to listen to whatever He is saying, but while we're surrounded by noise it is easier to drown out the Good Lord.
Noise has not only built a barrier between God and man but man and himself. This is a growing problem in our culture as we continue to become more and more disintegrated with ourselves. Just look at that word dis | integrate, or "not whole." Carl Jung recognized this in his own theory. He taught that whenever you are born, the tragedy of the world shatters the "self," and we must live the rest of our lives reintegrating the shadow (unconscious) with the self through a series of ego deaths and resurrections.
So what is the answer to all of this? It's simple, yet extremely difficult to implement. More silence, that's the simple truth of the matter. Take small steps to add more silence back into your life. Don't listen to the radio on your way home from work. Pray silently. Instead of rattling off everything to God, spend just a minute in silence with him. Set a timer if you have to. That's the thing, it's like spiritually working out. None of us will just be "good" at silence. Our culture has raised us in noise. That's what we're used to. I can't fall asleep without a white noise. Practice makes perfect.
God advised in the Psalms to "Be still and know that I AM God" (Psalm 46: 10, ESV). Without stillness (which comes through silence), can we come to know God and who He is? The deal with silence is this, we need it if we are going to deepen our relationship with God and ourselves. We can only have silence if we make time and a space for it. The deal with silence is that in a world full of noise and voices, we need silence to help us find our own.
Go enjoy a walk in the woods without a phone. Enjoy a car ride through the mountains. If you can't keep yourself company, how well can you keep it with others?
Noise has not only built a barrier between God and man but man and himself. This is a growing problem in our culture as we continue to become more and more disintegrated with ourselves. Just look at that word dis | integrate, or "not whole." Carl Jung recognized this in his own theory. He taught that whenever you are born, the tragedy of the world shatters the "self," and we must live the rest of our lives reintegrating the shadow (unconscious) with the self through a series of ego deaths and resurrections.
So what is the answer to all of this? It's simple, yet extremely difficult to implement. More silence, that's the simple truth of the matter. Take small steps to add more silence back into your life. Don't listen to the radio on your way home from work. Pray silently. Instead of rattling off everything to God, spend just a minute in silence with him. Set a timer if you have to. That's the thing, it's like spiritually working out. None of us will just be "good" at silence. Our culture has raised us in noise. That's what we're used to. I can't fall asleep without a white noise. Practice makes perfect.
God advised in the Psalms to "Be still and know that I AM God" (Psalm 46: 10, ESV). Without stillness (which comes through silence), can we come to know God and who He is? The deal with silence is this, we need it if we are going to deepen our relationship with God and ourselves. We can only have silence if we make time and a space for it. The deal with silence is that in a world full of noise and voices, we need silence to help us find our own.
Go enjoy a walk in the woods without a phone. Enjoy a car ride through the mountains. If you can't keep yourself company, how well can you keep it with others?
There's something fascinating to me in the thought that we all talk about silence and apply it to our thoughts also. Thoughts don't make any sound! We're adding something to the word - emptiness, spaciousness, absence of distraction - these are all present in silence perhaps, but silence itself is purely the lack of physical sound.
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