Stemming from a convicting sermon preached by Pastor Jeff on the topic of Christian Speech (Col 4:6), I was persuaded to consider very carefully the implications of holy speech. Perhaps no other topic hits closer to home than the topic of speech and the necessity for our speech to be edifying and gracious. Pastor Jeff’s sermon noted that our speech should be highlighted by three characteristics: graciousness, purposeful and timely. It was under the first characteristic of Christian speech that made me pause and consider a different topic related to our speech. According to his sermon, one of the reasons for our lack of gracious and edifying speech was our tendency to speak too quickly. Couple hasty speech with our tendency to speak too much and to please others added to one outcome in my mind: silence is an overlooked discipline.
We live in a media-saturated world. This technological age has brought about a dangerous mindset that craves instant results and the constant droning of our various media fills all our waking moments. Information is gathered, analyzed, disseminated, and packaged in a rather short amount of time. There is a great danger to our current generation as the absolute joy of silence is being quickly taken away from us. Consider the rise of Twitter, the online social media tool that has taken the world by storm. Limited to only 140 characters, the system has great benefits but also great dangers. Idealistically, the goal would be to succinctly use the tool as a means to communicate with family and friends without exposing them to every little facet of your life. The reality of Twitter is that people fill every waking moment of their life with a “twitter post” that reduces their once thoughtful and poignant entries to banality. Now, I must confess that I have a Twitter account and I find the tool useful when I want to update my friends about what God is doing in my life or how the Lord is teaching me, and even the occasional posts that reveal the sillier side of my personality. I find it to be a good source of communicating with fellow church goers as well as a good source of fast and concise information. My concern is that we do not take the time to ponder our next post and think carefully about our day or even reflect in silence a meaningful aspect of our life that we would like to share with our friends and family. Opinions are thrown from one camp to another; blogs with comment features enabled all resulting in a litany of weak arguments, straw man propositions—all in all a general buzz that is vying for our attention.
How has the lack of silence affected us? David Ulin, book editor at the LA Times, wrote an an article that articulates the slow decay of our ability “to still the mind long enough to inhabit someone else’s world, and to let someone else inhabit mine.” Not only does it affect our ability to read, but our church services have been affected by the need to fill the silence. Mark Dever, senior pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church also notes the need for our silences to be filled—even during worship services. He writes that the silence in between does not necessarily need to be filled but can give the congregation an opportunity to reflect on the songs they just sung or the Scripture that was just read. He writes (emphasis his):
There’s silence between various aspects of the service. I encourage service leaders to NOT do the “no-dead-airspace” TV standard of busy-ness. We LIKE “dead air space.” “Dead air space” gives us time to reflect. To collect our thoughts. To consider what we’ve just heard or read or sung. The silence amplifies the words or music we’ve just heard. It allows us time to take it all in, and to pray. We have silence to prepare ourselves. We have silence between the announcements and the scriptural call to worship. We even have a moment of silence AFTER the service! I pronounce the benediction from the end of II Corinthians, invite the congregation to be seated. And then, after about a minute of silence, the pianist begins quietly playing the last hymn that we had just sang. During those few moments, we reflect and prepare to speak to others and depart. We do business with God. We prepare ourselves for the week ahead.
Let us consider Psalm 131. Psalm 131 is a psalm of confidence in the Lord; the writer models for us the ideal mindset and readiness of soul before a holy and eternal God. David writes that he has “calmed and quieted my soul” (Ps 131:2) and then goes on to compare what this “calmed and quieted” attitude is similar to. He notes that this attitude is similar to a “weaned child with its mother,” where a child is simply content in being in his mother’s presence, so our attitude as a faithful worshiper is to be content with God’s presence, even when there are things billowing through our minds. Note the final outcome of such trust in verse 3. The writer notes that they may hope in the Lord at all times. This hope is gained in the disposition of trust and contentment found only in the stillness of their soul as they stand humbly before the King.
What are some benefits of cultivating a discipline for silence?
- You are able to mediate on God’s Word. We need the stillness of our souls, minds and hearts to be quiet just as our study rooms. This silencing of noise—music and speech—allows us to consider very carefully and deeply the words of God and the piercing implications of His word in our lives (cf. Ps 119:48).
- You are able to focus on your prayers. Before our day is over-saturated with noise, our time of silence allows us to focus on the most urgent of matters and to cogently form our thoughts and prayers for our Lord to answer.
- You are able to reflect on your day. Perhaps a lost practice, the time to reflect upon the day allows us to develop a better habit for introspection. Do we examine our heart and soul for sins committed? Do we examine them for moments of dissatisfaction with the Lord? Do we examine our days to see the specific blessings the Lord may have placed in our day? Read Psalm 119 and you will get a sense of deep thinking and mediating on God’s Word in the silence of the days and nights.
- Last, you are able to think deeply, poignantly and accurately about many subjects. This ties into the sermon with our speech. We are in a rush to answer or to glibly comment on passing remarks. This should not be the case. The writer of Proverbs notes, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame” (Prov 18:13). Let us not be fools and bring shame upon ourselves by giving an answer before we even the know the relevant facts.
The benefits of silence are great. Let us eagerly pursue the discipline of silence with joy. Protect your times of silence from the buzz of society and you ought to be better for it. Like the advice your movie theater gives you, “Silence really is golden.”