So why do we not seek it instead of running from it?

 Silence: The Google defines it as a “complete absence of sound.”

We rarely find that now. Everything around us creates or amplifies some kind of sound.

I have discovered my mind sometimes rearranges memories in such a way that I think something happened one way, when it, in fact, happened another. For example, Simon and Garfunkel’s great old song doesn’t use the phrase “Sound of silence my old friend,” which is how I thought it was. “Silence” was not their “old friend,” “Darkness” was.

So, it is, “Hello darkness my old friend.” But the words  “The Sound of Silence” were  important enough to be the name of that timeless song.

That brings me to what I would like to discuss this morning, Silence!

Silence is a rare commodity these days. It is valuable and under-appreciated. Whether you know it or not, silence is something you need. It is a bit like the vitamins and nutrients you are supposed to get from your food, and you maybe take as a supplement, they are those powerful little things that keep you on an even keel both physically and mentally. You may not realize when they are not there, until….

As I write early on this frosty morning it is 3° F. I sit by the fire. I have my cup of coffee. I write on my old iPad and my S24+ phone. Their keyboards set to silent so as not to mar the silence.

I hear just two sounds.

I hear the occasional popping and the low hiss of the gas log fire. And there is the sound of Aram Kachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus in my earbuds. (Thank you Emma for suggesting earbuds)

The fire and the music are both relaxing sounds. Spartacus I know as the theme music from The Onedin Line a favorite TV program from our days in that wee village on the North Sea coast of Scotland.

The Onedin Line came to us out of the old plastic black & white TV that sat in the corner of the living room in our home on Trenchard Way. It was on one of the three or four sometimes snowy channels we were all able to receive. To quote another old song, “Those were the days my friend!” Good times those!

 Both the fire and Spartacus are pleasant, relaxing sounds.

But so is the sound of silence.

I suspect silence was easier to come by in days gone by. Many of the things we think essential to our existence today, it seems are purposely noisy as if we we’re somehow attempting to ban silence from our lives. Do these things subtly steal silence from us, or do we willingly give it up?

I believe there is value in silence.

-It can permit deep and careful thought

-It can allow you to be more aware of danger

-It can allow you to hear a loved one

-It can allow you to hear the voice of God.

In 1 Kings chapter19 and verse 9, we find the prophet Elijah on a mountain. He is hiding. He has convinced himself that he is the only one still following God and now Queen Jezebel is hunting him in order to kill him. God is also looking for him. Elijah in his running and hiding has found a cave on a mountain.

While he is hiding in the cave, there comes a terrible wind, strong enough to break the rocks the verses tell us. Then there is an earthquake, and then a fire.  These, I am certain were noisy things.

And then the scripture says there was “a still small voice.”

That was God!

God, the creator of the universe, was not in the noise and power of the wind, nor in the noise and shaking of the earthquake, or the noise and heat of the fire. He was in the  “still small voice!”

The noise around us can prevent us from hearing the “still small voice.

I love the King James where God asks more than once in this story, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” Elijah, is serving the God of creation, why did he need to hide?

You noticed I’m sure that God didn’t speak in the noise of the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, He spoke in the quiet, in the “still small voice.”

When the noisy world seems like it’s crumbling around us, maybe we need to take a moment to listen for the “still small voice.”

A recent post on ‘X’ observes, “Everybody should stop near a quiet little stream and listen.”

A very quiet and very smart granddaughter, now a young teenager, made an excellent observation one day as we sat around the dinner table discussing how quiet she is. She said, “When you are quiet, people tell you stuff.”

So why do we not seek to be more quiet? Why do we surround ourselves with noise?  Were I younger, I would go back to college, obtain a psychology degree, get a government grant and study the subject.

It seems we are afraid…of the silence.

Psalm 46.10 tells us to “Be still, and know that I am God:” Could it be we are afraid to “know God.” Maybe not consciously, but afraid to go to a place where we might meet Him

 Note Jesus’ words in Mark 6.31. Speaking to his disciples; “…he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”

There were a lot of distractions, a lot of “coming and going,”  It wasn’t very quiet. They didn’t even have time to eat.

Jesus recognized this as a problem.

I heard a Pastor speak on these verses one time and he said, “If you don’t come apart, you may “come apart.” He meant literally on the last “apart.”  Not only are we not quiet and silent…we are busy, maybe too busy.

Some years ago I had occasion to be visiting with Dr, Tom Elliff then the Pastor at First Southern Baptist Church in Dell City OK. I had shared with him how I wondered at the great  works and wisdom of Bible commentators from centuries ago and I marveled that they did their work with without the use of word processors, internet access, etc., and yet they came up with so much amazing wisdom and insight.  Dr. Elliff said, “I know. I had a friend who wrote an amazing work and I asked him how he came up with the wisdom to put into words.” Dr. Elliff said,  “My friend said,” ‘it was ‘in a little sod hut in Ireland.’”

I bet it was quiet in that little sod hut.

Don’t let silence scare you, make it “your old friend!”