Hello Darkness My Old Friend,

I made my second White House Silent retreat last week.  It's part of a Lenten tradition I hope to continue.  Throughout scripture we are prompted to remove distraction from our lives and sit in the quiet and pray.  During those few days, I began to think about and research the importance of silence.  

A guy by the name of Bernie Krause in 1968 attempted to capture one hour of sound in nature that didn’t include any man made noises in the recording.  It took him 15 hours of material to piece together that one hour.  In 2015, to get that same sixty minutes of natural sound, it took him over 2,000 hours.  

I also read that over half of the population of the United States is regularly exposed to noise levels labeled excessive by the EPA.

We have created a culture that is uncomfortable with silence.  Do you have the radio on all day at work, in the car, at home?  Do you have an app to create white noise to help you sleep?  When you go for a walk, do you desperately look for your earbuds?  Any silence or pause in conversation lasting more than a few seconds immediately feels awkward.  We look to our phones, computers or MP3 wired clothing to seek refuge from the cringe worthy feeling in our stomach resonating from silence.  

Do your best, even while reading this, to secure a place free of distractions and let the words below sink in:

• Then Moses said to all Isreal “Be silent Oh Isreal and listen!” Deuteronomy 29:9
• Search your hearts and be silent.  Psalms 4:4
• Let all the earth be silent before Him.   Habakkuk 2:20
• Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.  Luke 5:16
• Come to me, all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Matthew 11

If I am not still, how is Jesus going to give me rest?  Does my schedule, time, and life look like that of a person who wants to listen to Him?

Sometimes I feel as if God is distant.  I wonder if there is a connection between the amount of noise in my life and my inability to hear God?  When I compare the amount of time spent worrying and talking about my challenges to the amount of time spent in silence listening to what He might have to say,  it's not a very good ratio.  And then I wonder why I feel forsaken.

Maybe the healing, connection, and guidance we desperately need is not going to come from one more meeting, therapy session, homily or self help book….maybe it’s just from simply finding a quiet space and listening for the voice of God.