The Sound of Silence in the Quiet Place

 

Silence....we all long for it at times. Throughout our lives, parents, school teachers and older siblings have admonished us to: "Be Quiet" to "Hush" to "Be Still" to "Settle Down" or in some cases, to "Not Speak unless you are Spoken to."

If we were not compliant with those admonitions, the directive would then be to "Go to your Room!" or "You are Grounded" or "No friends over and no phone privileges." Sometimes it would be for a week, a month, throughout the year, or even threatened that it would be for the rest of our lives.

The youth of today would specifically be restricted by having: "No Cell Phone use, No Lap Top, and No Internet, iTouch, iPhone, iPod, iPad I or II, or Smart Phone use." In other words: Stay in, be alone and be separate from the usual social activities with family and or friends.....and by all means, learn something valuable from the experience. "No Face Book, Twittering or anything that involves contact with others." and furthermore, "That means also No Radio, No access to the TV, No watching DVDs, Blue Ray, or other media." In addition, "No use of a VCR (if there is one), and never mind using Dad's music Cassettes or even the 8 Track player. Right, they will get that one.

 The Quiet Place is a Place of Privilege

Be Quiet....and spend some time alone. That was the message that we received, and it continued to be the message, as we grew up. However, it was all too often tied to a form of punitive disciplinary action. Isolation, was one of life's most painful, awful, no-good-very-bad  kinds of punishment.  Strangely enough, years later as adults, we find ourselves longing for times of silence, and it ranks as one of life's top three daily fantasies. Time alone...

On the other side of the spectrum, poets and songwriters have produced countless ballads, poems, have written prose, lyrics for music, plays and or screenplays, on the topic of loneliness: the long term experience of isolation, relational rejection, and abandonment. Often the solution to the dilemma is to fall in love, and find someone to love you back. The myriad number of love songs ever written, could likely circle the earth so many times, that it would look like a gargantuan tangled ball of yarn.

The sad reality is that if we are unable to connect meaningfully with a close friend or a significant other, a painful loneliness sweeps slowly in upon the soul like a misty winter fog, and it can camp there for a very, very long time. The worst part is not in being lonely, it is being forgotten by someone that you could never forget. It is believing the notion that to be alone is life's punishment for being unwanted by another. When being alone is so depressingly painful, we miss the value of being close to the one companion that we will have from birth to death - ourselves.

"What a commentary on civilization, when being alone is being suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, and hide the fact that one practices it - like a secret vice."  ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

The Strength of Solitude in The Quiet Place

There is a deeper life lesson to be learned from all of this. It is important in life to discover that there is a profound difference between loneliness, and carefully planned periods of solitude. It is not in the rushing cascade of the river that a beautiful sunset is mirrored, but in the quiet waters of a still lake. There is keen insight in David's Psalm where he poetically penned, 

“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside Quiet waters, He refreshes my soul.”  Psalm 23:1-3

Sadly, we all too often find short term more immediate ways to adapt to the stresses of life, and label that as "My Chill Time." 

For many, taking time out for personal contemplation, daily journaling, private reflection, and or spiritual worship, is seen to be impractical, and unrealistic in light of today's frantic pace of life. However, silence speaks when words cannot. We can slowly become conditioned to finding "other things" to keep us calm in the midst of chaos, rather than seek out a Quiet Place to deepen our inner peace and renew our strength in a way that God alone can provide.

Whispers in our Memory in The Quiet Place

It is hard for most people to remember a time when they found themselves in a tranquil Quiet Place....to remember that moment, when one is enveloped in a peaceful stillness, and the dissonance of continuous noise had all but disappeared. To discover that no sounds were scratching at the periphery of your thoughts to distract you. It likely didn't last long, but when it happened, you vowed never to forget the sweet sound of silence.

For the one whose world is silenced due to deafness, quietness became the unwelcomed guest who stopped by without invitation, and refuses to leave. The prison of imposed silence, however it comes to one's life, is not the discovery of the precious essence of quietness, unless it is discovered as a strength rather than a disability. To lose any of the 5 senses is monumental. The reality of the priceless value of cherished times of silence, are only discovered on a very personal and spiritual level, whereby a gentle hush transcends the senses.

The Sounds of Silence in The Quiet Place

Paul Simon, who wrote and sang folk ballads in the 1960's, released the familiar song, "The Sound of Silence." Performing in Greenwich Village, Simon and Garfunkel, relevantly expressed what many people were feeling at that time throughout the world. To many, the lyrics of the song whisper gently from our memory, at just the reminder of it. For some, poignant phrases were mentally etched upon the walls of memory with a tenacity that still remains. Why is that? Was it the profoundness of the song's lyrics, or the timeless melody that embraces the words like a warm blanket, carrying it into our consciousness and memory? Maybe it is both.

Many have pondered questions about the meaning of The Sound of Silence. Whether it was the personal reflection of a dream that Paul Simon had one night:

"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence."

or a grassroots cry to society to refuse to be led blindly into accepting whatever any political power might dictate to be the standard for social ethics, virtues, or values:

"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence."

or perhaps it is a challenge to not follow the media as mesmerized children, stumbling after the humanistic worldly Pied Piper to a perilous end.

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence."

or was it a call to resist media manipulation, and rather listen to the genuine cry of a different way to address real social issues of the day, found etched in Graffiti-esque literature in dark urban subways and tenement halls:

"And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets 

are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence."

We still cry out today to stop the injustice, tyranny and cruel domination of so many people across the world. We also yearn in our own lives, to stop the noise, the unrelenting stress, and the tyranny of the urgent. Regardless of one's race, color or religion, it rings true for everyone across the 194 countries throughout the known world.

The Irreplaceable Value of The Quiet Place

God whispers to each of us to discover the irreplaceable value of The Quiet Place and guard it as a time to meet with God in the Holy of Holies of undisturbed, and worshipful silence. Instead of, "Hello Darkness my old friend, I come to talk with you again" our prayer becomes, "My dear Heavenly Father, I come to commune with you again." 

There is a Quiet Place and we can each kneel reverently in the blessed hush of God's presence, however, the pathway is only accessible through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ (John 14:1, 6 and 14). 

There was absolutely no other way for any of any of us to have intimate access to a Holy God. None of us could pay the debt of sin's terrible cost, so Jesus paid the debt that He did not owe, because we owed a debt that we could not pay.

The Undeniable Cost of The Quiet Place

As precious drops of His sacrificial sinless blood touched the altar of atonement, The Lamb of God died for every one of us. The veil that separated mankind from God in the Temple in Jerusalem, from true intimate worship with God, was torn asunder. In a Holy flash, the way was made open for all of us. His precious blood was sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat of meritorious atonement for our sins, and it continuously opens the pathway to each and every one of us, but we must embrace Him as our Lord, Savior and King.

There is a Quiet Place.... Find the time and place where you are undisturbed, inaccessible and unhindered by life's distractions, and treasure it as non-negotiable moments that are etched upon your daily schedule with indelible ink.

The Intimate Enjoyment of The Quiet Place

There is a Quiet Place....reach out and seize it, and make it your own. Cherish it as a foundational part of each day of your life. It is your time to walk in the Edenic Garden with your Creator, where you and God enjoy sweet and precious moments together. It must be priceless to Him... for He gave His very life to ensure that nothing could ever separate the two of you again.You just have to reach out to Him, and you will already discover His hand already waiting for yours.

^“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 

   “For your sake we face death all day long;
   we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8: 31-39

Take a few moments and hear this worshipful rendition of The Quiet Place

"A Quiet Place" by A Cappella

 

Everyone Needs a Quiet Place

We all need significant times in our lives where we experience the peacefulness of complete and total silence. Hushed moments where we can make a heartfelt exploration of our deepest questions, posed before the Almighty God of the universe; questions that are whispered in but a single solitary moment in time. God is timeless, yet He pauses, draws near to our hearts, and listens to what we are really saying, when no one else is really listening.

We all need to find a solitary place where we can stop the world, breathe our own oxygen and hear the sounds of silence. Yet mere aloneness or solitude is not an asset that truly satisfies unless we are able to connect to someone greater than ourselves.

 “If one pictures life as a line on a page, one must picture God as the page on which the line is drawn.” CS Lewis

What is this Quiet Place within us? How did it get there? If there is Quiet Place within us, why can’t we easily find it? Most people are so afraid of silence and solitude that we cringe from the quiet and even panic at the mere thought of solitude. The very idea of a prolonged period of quietness can seem to suffocate our consciousness, rather than liberate our deepest self. Inner exploration as a pilgrimage in and of itself, can lead one into a maze from which there are no true answers and for some, only a disillusioned imprisonment, from which there can seem no escape.

There is a Quiet Place within every one of us

There is a God created domain, deep in the very soul of every human being. It is a place within our soul that nothing can truly fill except our creator Himself. He created us to be indwelt by His Spirit, and nothing in life can take His place there.

The reality of this truth could fill a myriad of blogs. This one cannot explore the depths of such a vast topic. My hope is that it touches a parched tongue with a drop of water so as to find the fountain from which living water can truly be found.

One of the most terrifying of incarcerations is one of solitary confinement? Why is that?  Yet the Monastic zealots, the Ascetics, the Gnostics and the philosophers of history, write of such a quest with passionate fervency. Many however, have later ventured forth disillusioned, broken in spirit, mentally bankrupt, and unable to function in society at all. Their baptism into rigorous, and disciplined prolonged periods of solitude, had changed them, but the change was a metamorphosis into having lost their self completely, rather than having found their true self.

 The deeper into themselves that they had searched, the more enslaved and shackled they became; captives of their own disillusionment, rather than becoming liberated and set free. There is a truth that cannot be denied: The longer one lives in the darkness, the blinder he will become. 

"The world's smallest package is a man wrapped up in Himself."    Charles Swindoll 

"The Lord is near those who have a broken heart." Psalm 34:18 

Life within the Inner Storm

  

Your own Quiet Place may be enveloped by a raging storm within your life right now, or seemingly imprisoned by an addiction that now has you trapped rather than enlightened. Your profound heartache, bitterness at being hurt, or unending physical pain and suffering may numb the reality of it, but the Quiet Place is real. It is God’s private place to share life with you and you alone. Regardless of what is happening to you, taking place around you or going on within you, always remember that you are not alone in the storm.

"His way is in the whirlwind and the storm..." Nahum 1:3

As our lives are jammed tight with unending schedules, time pressures, and burdensome obligations, it may not seem like there is Quiet within, but it is there amidst the noise and the stress...it just doesn't  seem accessible. In times of hardship, suffering, or loneliness, we are more conscious of the Quiet Place within, but it is encumbered and suppressed by depression, sorrow, and feelings of deep despair. We may see the dim pathway to it, shimmering across our minds eye like a mirage, but then it seems to dim and fade amidst the pain. 

God’s Promise to us 

Only God can become our Quiet Place. Only He can prepare within us, through His redemptive mercy and grace, a new place where He can commune with us and we can truly know Him and worship Him.

" I will give them one heart (a new heart) and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony (unnaturally hardened) heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh (sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God).” Ezekiel 11:19 Amplified. Bible
 

“God’s quest to be glorified, and our quest to be satisfied reach their goal in this one experience; when our delight in God overflows in praise for God , for praise is the sweetness of His own excellence in the hearts of His people. For us, praise is the summit of satisfaction that comes from  living in fellowship with God.” John Piper

 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”    2 Corinthians 5:17 

We discover in life that no amount of money or fame or possessions or power can satisfy the Quiet Place. Even in spite of all of the sentimental poetry, romance novels, love songs or love stories depicted in movies, no person can truly fill the Quiet Place.

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” John Piper

The Quiet Place exists within us regardless of our age, gender, or nationality. It exists no matter where we were born, or whatever language we may speak. The Quiet Place exits as a human reality. It is no less a fact than the truth that the sun rises every morning. It exists within us as certain as the astrological proof that the moon courses its way across the heavens, even if it is obscured from our sight because of a raging storm.

Counsel from a Pilgrim Traveler

“Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Psalm 32:6 -7

Comfort from a Loving God

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Psalm 32:8

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty (Whose power no foe can withstand).”  Psalm 91:1 Amplified Bible

 
No matter how many mistakes you have made, or how far away from God you may feel, or how broken your heart may be within you, God desires to know you and to show you how to turn a heart of chaos and turmoil into a Quiet Place.

Take a few moments to breathe and watch this inspirational music video

Hanging on to Hope

We are often made most aware of our need for strength when we are at the very weakest in our lives. It doesn’t take long before tough times can bring the strongest person to his knees, where it seems impossible to solve the dilemma that is draining him of the needed resources to hang in there when he feels like quitting and throwing in the towel. 

Some days you can literally feel like you are at the end of your rope and hanging on by your fingertips alone. During a season of unrelenting tough times, it can seem that no matter what we do, or how hard we pray, that nothing ever changes. In truth, it is natural to hope that life will get better, that our pain will heal or that our financial setbacks will turn into financial gains. That is human nature. We were created to enjoy sunrises, not cold winter storms. 

There are mornings when you can awake with the premonition that the day just seems to have a negative spin to it. You just know that trouble is stalking outside of our door, awaiting your first stumble. A morning where the toothpaste gushes out and drops onto your fresh clean shirt, then you sit down to have some breakfast and discover that one of the kids has left something awful on the chair that squishes against the seat of your pants, and then on our way to the car, you step in dog poop and fail to realize it until you are stuck in rush hour traffic with the windows rolled up. 

When Hope is needed the Most

It is insightful to remember that a flower follows the sun even on cloudy days. It may not see the sun, but it follows where the sun is moving across a cloud banked sky. The only gaze that strengthens and gives you courage to not give up, is to keep your eyes upon God and trust in His Word to give you the strength and the wisdom that you need. It is only through Him that the deepest resources of peace, hope and joy, in the midst of suffering and in spite of suffering, can be accessed.

Doubting God in Midst of Suffering

It is very difficult to hang on to hope and not give in to weary despair and have doubts of God’s love for us as we hang on to the ledge of our fleeting faith with trembling fingertips. In reality it is human nature to feel that way and is completely normal. What is supernatural is to see past the present trial that is testing our faith, and see the Sovereign hand of our Father in Heaven at work in our circumstance.The doubt of your faith is not so much God testing you beyond what you can handle, but it is the Truth seeking to enlarge your faith and free you from despair.

Paul wrote this truth to give us perspective during tough times while he was chained and confined in a Roman prison experiencing painful and disappointing suffering and deprivation.

“Now I want you to know and continue to rest assured, brethren, that what has happened to me through this imprisonment has actually only served to advance and give a renewed impetus to the spreading of the good news of the Gospel. This a fact that throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest here my imprisonment has become generally known to be in Christ that I am a prisoner in His service and for Him”. Philippians 1:12-13 Amplified Bible

Tough things happen to us, so that something will happen in us, so that something will happen through us to touch the lives of others. Things were happening to Paul, so that something would happen in Paul, so that something would happen through Paul. That something was the Gospel igniting within the corridors of that prison, and then it flowed throughout the known world in the form of the prison epistles written there, namely, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon (See Acts 28).

Cultivating a Thankful Heart

What a challenge it can be give thanks to God when you are going through the winter storms of life.

“Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I Thess. 5:18

Giving thanks for the tough things that are going on in our lives at all times, in every circumstance and without exception? This seems illogical and bizarre, especially when you are at the end of your rope. Why would a person be encouraged to thank God when his dreams are shattered and broken in pieces at his feet and he doesn’t know why or how that happened? Because it is not for the terrible circumstance that we are thanking Him for, but the liberating truth that in spite of tough times, we can rise above the storm with a song of praise in our hearts. (See Psalm 46-1-11).

Trusting God is more than a Feeling

The following Scripture sheds light on a crucial truth that is important to get a hold of early in his life:

“Trust in the Lord with all of you heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge him and He will make your paths straight.”  Proverbs 3:5-6

The Word of God directs us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and to not draw our own conclusions, derive a life strategy from, or rely upon our own ideas, our wits, our education or our life experience, as we live our lives each day. We are to establish in our minds that in all ways, in everything, and at all times we are to acknowledge Him and make His will our will and His way our way. As we do so, He will provide, from His Word, a strategy as to what to do in any situation that we are facing. 

God’s counsel in The Quiet Place of our heart is to discover that there is only one way where troubles, grief and sorrow can find comfort and meaning. He alone is the God of all comfort. To lean one’s hopes on anything other than God and His wondrous grace is to set oneself up for disappointment and despair.

“Find rest, O my soul in God alone; my hope comes from him.” Psalm 62:5

“You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your Word.” Psalm 119:114

Our hope must look confidently forward to something divinely purposeful, eternal and good that is yet to happen. We need to cling to the truth that regardless of the circumstances, God’s Sovereign purpose will be done in our lives. In spite of what we cannot see, He is at work and He is Lord. The natural man must see in order to believe but the spiritual man must believe in order to see.

 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1

 “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Rom 8:24-25

When it seems that God is Silent

The reality is that God sometimes allows suffering to remain unchanged and unrelenting in our lives. His will may be that for this time, the pain will continue, and the trial may be there again tomorrow. Do not doubt His love or compassion for you in the midst of your suffering, no matter how dark the night. 

In The Quiet Place, God calls gently to us to still our anxious heart, and discover anew that it is here that true honesty and a humble openness with God are present. If the trial does not change for the better, do not doubt God or His Word. To do so will leave you confused and disappointed that your request seems to have been denied. The seeming delay may mean that God may be saying, “No,” or “Not Now?”

  

“Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, ”Do not fear, I will help you."  Isa 41:10, 13

He is right there with you, right now. It is wonderful to greet the sunrise with the confident awareness of the presence of the God who created it, and the One who will be beside you whatever your day brings forth.Do not be afraid to venture out and experience the wonder and glory of being His child. There are simply no burdens, heartaches or times of suffering that can take away the hush of being with Him in The Quiet Place.