One of the questions that has been asked throughout our community is how do we listen to God? If Jesus is the head of our church, how do we all independently, individually, and collectively listen to the voice of God?

There are millions of ways God speaks to his children (Scripture, nature, other people, etc.). But in today’s noisy world, full of constant distraction, there is one simple and profound way, that’s available to everyone, where we can hear God more clearly. We all can hear God speak through silence.

Silence is the absence of noise, which can be different from the absence of sound.

We can develop silence into a spiritual discipline by quieting the noise in our environment and in ourselves. Maybe you still hear the wind rustling through trees, the trickle of a brook, or nearby traffic, but nothing is demanding your attention. You also learn to turn down the volume on your own inner monologue. As our practice develops, we increase our sensitivity to the Spirit’s work within and around us. As Psalm 4:10 says, “Be still and know I am God.”

Silence is Always an Open Door

With the boundaries of silence so vast and open, it can be hard to know what it might look like on a practical level. I offer you my own experience as an example that follows a predictable pattern.

I long for silence, especially when I don’t have it. But when the opportunity arises, something in me usually resists it. Until I remember silence is always available, all I have to do it choose to walk through the door. Here’s the pattern:

• Resistance tells you not to start
• Feel immediate rush of actually doing it washes over me
• Stay present for awhile, like floating on a cloud or down a gentle stream
• Slowly distractions come back
• Start to feel anxiety and resistance that screams out I have leave
• Meet that resistance with grace and come back to the center
• Rest in the peace of knowing you with God and God is with you
• This is the place where you can interact with God, asking any questions and hearing answers echo off the chambers of your soul

Silence is a Spiritual Discipline

“The simplest spiritual discipline is some degree of solitude and silence. But it’s the hardest, because none of us want to be with someone we don’t love. Besides that, we invariably feel bored with ourselves, and all of our loneliness comes to the surface.We won’t have the courage to go into that terrifying place without Love to protect us and lead us, without the light and love of God overriding our own self-doubt. Such silence is the most spacious and empowering technique in the world, yet it’s not a technique at all. It’s precisely the refusal of all technique.”

–Richard Rohr

A regular rhythm of silence helps keep us grounded in a spiritual reality that’s alive and dynamic. We’re better equipped to handle the noise in our lives without getting lost within ourselves, buried under tasks to do or pressures for our attention.

To overcome my own resistance to the invitation of silence, I sometimes think of the Holy Spirit as a playful child who longs for a moment of my undivided attention. Sometimes I imagine I am the child who wants my Father’s attention. Either way, it’s about showing up with nothing but presence.

• Start with just a 1-5 minutes a day
• Maybe try to regularly spend 30 minutes out in the silence of nature
• For greater effect, combine silence with solitude and stillness

As a community, silence teaches us how to be present with ourselves individually and with one another in both joy or sorrow. When we turn down the noise inside and outside of us with a regular rhythm of silence, we are more likely to say with honest conviction we “hear the voice of God.”