Nurturing Silence

Sunday school went well. I was rushing just a bit to get the last 7 rules (we did the first 3 last week) done today. It was also a bit unnerving to have the teacher (a PhD professor from the seminary) that I was filling in for show up for the class. And on top of that both my supervisor and the company owner were in class this week. Then throw in this cough that just doesn’t want to quit---and I’m thankful it went so well.

At one point in the discussion I shared something that I had shared with one of the folks whose journal I read. She has been facing some really tough stuff from her mother’s cancer and other illnesses, her son’s depression, her husband’s struggle with losing his job. She described it as feeling like each issue was crack from an iron skillet in the hand of God. Now, I’m not one to preach in my notes. I shy away from criticism and try to only make positive comments. But I really took a risk to let her know that I didn’t think it was God bonking her with that skillet, but the enemy of her heart and soul. What she needs to see—what we all need to see and experience is that God wants to envelop us in his love and grace. When we face the tough times, God’s deepest desire is for us to experience his presence as the God of all comfort and consolation. I told the class that if they felt like they were being bonked it wasn’t God because God doesn’t even own a skillet—in fact there isn’t even a kitchen in heaven! The point was well taken.

I snuck away for a little time yesterday to take in some quiet. I went to my room, sat in my corner chair, and picked up my copy of “Nurturing Silence in a Noisy Heart” (by Wayne Oates). Oates speaks early to our need to listen more and speak less. This has always been an area of struggle for me. When I get nervous I talk. When I feel the need to negotiate peace (step into my peacemaker role) I talk. When I feel like the party is lagging and dragging I talk. When I have an opinion, an anecdote, or something that will help clarify the discussion I talk. I struggled to listen as a therapist.

Oates points out that Jesus suggests a type of praying that is not “known for it’s ‘much speaking.’ He taught simplicity of utterance. Your “yes is to be “yes and your “no” is to be “no.” Silence is a discipline of choosing what to say and to what to listen. …What you do say…will have a hundred times more influence. If you limit, change, or expand the objects of your attention (your listening), you can become the kind of person you want to be, change the kinds of directions in which you want to go.

I’m going to be reflecting on what I’m reading in my next posts along with seeing how it fits into life. Should make for some interesting writing.