“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12)
Prayer Practice: Silence
It is difficult to find silence in an age of technology and information. Silence challenges our cultural addiction to amusement, words, music, advertising, noise, alarms and voices. Silence asks for patience and waiting. And both silence and waiting make us uncomfortable. They seem so unproductive. We can’t tell if we are doing anything in them. So when we come upon silence, we fill it. We cram it with something else we can learn or do or achieve…
In quietness we often notice things we would rather not notice or feel. Pockets of sadness or anger or loneliness or impatience begin to surface. Our own outer agenda looms larger than our desire to be with God in silence. And as the silence settles in and nothing seems to be happening, we often struggle with feeling that we are wasting time. Everything we notice in this struggle can become an invitation to prayer. Like a can opener, the silence opens up the contents of our heart, allowing us deeper access to God than we experience at other times. As we remain in silence, the inner noise and chaos will begin to settle. Our capacity to open up wider and wider to God grows. The Holy One has access to places we don’t even know exist in the midst of the hubbub.
From “Spiritual Disciplines Handbook” by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
This week’s practice is to create spaces for silence and listening. Silence is an important companion discipline to prayer. Here are suggestions for how to make space for silence this week:
Set aside 5-10 minutes to sit in silence (that’s right…just sitting and being still and silent!). Set a timer so you don’t keep checking your phone or watch and you can just be still. Intentionally place yourself in the presence of God and become quiet. As you become quiet, what happens? What internal noises and thoughts come to the surface? Bring those thoughts to God. Let yourself relax into the quiet, simply being with God. After your time, take a moment to reflect on your experience. Try practicing this every day and notice what happens over time.
Consider the noise sources in your life, particularly media. Is there something you can limit or abstain from this week? Make note over the course of the week what happens in these extra spaces of silence.
Try setting a media curfew in the evening so that you can have more silence before sleep.
Set aside an hour of the day when you choose silence over Netflix, music or any other media noise.
Try driving in silence this week…no radio, music, podcasts…just stillness.
If you feel up for it, maybe abstain from all media this week!