The Beauty and the Beast of Silence

Silence can be good or evil. It has both a human and divine side. There is also something beautiful about silence, especially in worship. But used wrongly, it becomes an open door to all that is ugly and vile. It becomes an exposer of the heart. But learning to hear Him in silence is of the utmost importance when it comes to God. 

July 2019 brought about many transitions for my family and me. After years of praying and seeking wise counsel about transitioning, I began seeing God speaking in everything around me in new ways. But the most evident of all was how God was speaking to me, and it made me a bit uncomfortable at first.  

I thought the discomfort was rooted in taking a biblical online training course and teaching at a fantastic but intense 5-week string camp for ages 3 to 12. Yes, I did much in those five weeks in July, including teaching at my private music studio, contracting orchestra musicians for a unique conference that involved 6-hours of rehearsal and a 2-hour performance at the Studebaker Theater with the most outstanding musicians – of the “Shine Symphony” – for a NANM conference, and before all of that, a wedding gig!  I excitedly awaited the last week of camp because I knew that come August, I would have some free days to rest, vacation, and get back to writing.

But no. It wasn’t that at all. I handled the course and the teaching just fine due to the preparation I had put in before summer teaching began. And, the performing gigs were extra, like icing on the cake, totally unexpected but welcome! I met incredible musicians from other parts of the country and reconnected with others I hadn’t seen. However, as I reflected, I couldn’t help but see the transition while I worked, drove, and read. While scrolling through Facebook one day, a scripture posted by my husband jolted me. Even though the way God spoke was different, even though I perceived it as silence from Him,  I knew He was still there. Then I saw it…

Be still…

I knew that I needed to obey it… 

And know that I am God.

And learn to hear God in the silence.

On my nightstand lay the June 2018 edition (yes, 2018!) of Today in the Word, a devotional of Moody Global Ministries. I opened it up to Day 1. What do you think stared back at me? Ecclesiastes 3:7b, “A time to keep silent and a time to speak” (AMP). I thought, “Well, if this isn’t timely!” The theme of that June booklet was focused on hearing God in the silence! 

While the silence bothered me at first, Wisdom showed up and shared with me that lots of people in the Bible had wilderness moments or times of silence, and for good reason! I’m in good company!!!  I also felt God nudging me, saying, “Now it is time to sit and delight in all that I have shown you leading up to this moment.” I took that to mean we can desire more and more knowledge and put ourselves in a position to learn and learn but miss out on the transformation it can bring when we do nothing with it. (This is when sitting is good.) 

Another thing I learned from reading that devotional is the term merism and how it is used in the Bible. The Moody Bible Commentary defines it as “a literary device highlighting the totality of something by indicating its two extremes and everything in between.” 

As I thought about that definition and the above-referenced scripture, I saw the silence between the Old and New Testaments. It reminded me of the Bible story I shared with the kids in children’s ministry on Sunday.  Their participation in learning God’s timeline story was to present a page depicting an event throughout God’s timeline that they had colored. One page had the word “Silence” in giant letters, and a girl asked what that meant as she was coloring it. It was good to talk to them about the period between the Testaments when God was silent – 400 years…

Yet, not one child asked why. Why was God silent? What did the people do during this silence? What do you do when God is quiet on a matter? How do you interpret it? Do you give up? Do you push in? Do you begin to entertain beliefs that just aren’t true? Or, do you realize God is up to something and just be still and know? How you view silence could expose the beastly side of silence, that human part of you that perhaps questions with the wrong heart. 

However, look at David. There is a way to embrace God’s silence while knowing He is God. In Psalm 35:22, he prays to God to be silent on a matter yet praises Him while awaiting the answer. This scripture reminds me of my son’s song, “Hear Me,” from the Canyon Worship 2018 CD.  In it, he asks, “Can You hear me?” One may think, “How dare you question God like this!” But in listening to the lyrics, you hear the simplicity of his heart and the realization, like David, of who God is and who he is in God. It teaches me that we can ask God questions while holding on to faith.  It doesn’t mean we have become faithless or struggle when asking questions! 

Hmm… Looking at some of the themes of silence through this lens has prompted me to explore this further.  What are your thoughts or experiences about hearing God through the silence?   

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