Silent God

Click here to read Isaiah 18

When you belong to a denomination that has spend creative time and energy in trying to communicate the message that "God is still speaking" today in our lives, in our churches, and in our world; verse 4 comes a little bit of a shock.  Whatta mean God is silent?

Sure, I know that in 1 Kings 19:9-13 that when God appeared to Elijah, God did not come in the form of a blazing, hot fire or a wind storm more powerful than the one that swept through Wisconsin last week bringing with it a cold that chills you to the bones.  To Elijah, God whispered...or as some versions say God came out of, "a still small silence".  But at least that is still speaking...in some way.

Yet, think of it this way, silence is still communicating.  When you give your spouse the cold shoulder or refuse to respond to a hurtful comment or don't reply to a text or email, in someways you are still trying to communicate.  But in a world saturated with words, our silence is barely noticed amid the cacophony.  In a world where there is always something happening: some show to watch, blog to read, website to surf to, we rarely find ourselves in a moment of silence.

And when we do...say in the doctor's office waiting room with that awful muzak being piped in...our minds jump into hyper-drive filling the void with all sorts of random thoughts left over from days and weeks gone by.  In moments of silence our minds become like frantic patchwork quilters trying to piece together the fragments of our lives.  And usually, that silence is fleeting.  Mercifully, the nurse calls us back to the office or the phone rings or we start playing "Angry Birds" on our phone.  But what would happen if we would try to practice silence, get past that awkward stage, and really immerse ourselves in the stillness, peacefulness, and solitude of the sacred?

I do wonder if one of the ways God is still speaking today is just inviting us to be in silence.  Not so God can get a word in edgewise, but just to be.  Isaiah tells us in the midst of banners being rolled out and trumpets blasting, God sat silently.  In the midst of a world where in a little over a week billions of dollars will be spent on ads, our modern day banners, to capture our attention and music will blast from some of the most famous people today, where is God's voice in the midst of Superbowl Sunday?  Of course, being a Wisconsinite, it is easy to think that God does not have a vested interest in this year's Superbowl.

Maybe God's still speaking won't come across as words at all.  Maybe God's still speaking will invite us into a silence, the kind of silence where you actually hear your own breath.  Breath that God breathed into our ancestor's bodies in Genesis 2, giving us life.  And maybe if we can hear that breath for just a few moments, no matter how fleeting, we will sense the truth of Isaiah's words and catch a trace of God's grace.

Blessings and peace!