The Real Silence

When the lights are turned off, the television has blared its last voice, and the computer screen has finally gone to sleep, we close our eyes and hope that sleep is only a blink or more away.  In those moments before all the internal switches are turned to the off position, we are often aware of the silence of the place where we live.  Everything seems quiet.  Silent at last.  But, not really.  It takes a power outage in the darkness to turn off the ever hummings that are so much a part of our lives, we do not hear them.  In that moment we truly hear the sounds of silence and it is a sound amplified by the deepened darkness created by the absence of all the digital lights that burn in all the rooms.    

Even as real silence is hard to find in our external world, it is hard to hear in our inner being.  It seems that there is always something humming within us which keeps us from knowing what it is to sit in silence in our lives.  Distractions abound when we seek to separate ourselves from them.  Immediately, they begin to cry loudly for attention and it is only with a great effort that we are able to turn away from them so we can go back into the empty silence.   

Actually, some wonder why entering the silence is something to be sought.  At every point it our noisy society, we are caused to avoid the silence.  To avoid the silence is to avoid knowing ourselves and knowing what it means to truly walk with the One who created us.  The place of His dwelling is in our hearts.  It is not a noisy place, but a place where a holy voice can be heard again and again.  And while His voice can be overpowering, it is often the quiet voice that is only heard by those who discipline themselves to walk in the still silence which is always all around us and within us.