Communicating through the Silence and Noise of our Lives

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I’ve been thinking a lot about communication lately.  It is such a wonderful gift for human beings.  Most animals and species communicate – but we are blessed uniquely with the gift of words.  Words can never say all there is to say but they are always opening up the future as new words are made up and words give rise to new thoughts and create new meanings.
 
How do we use this gift that is so easy to take for granted?  How do we communicate with God – do we talk more than we listen?   How do we talk with each other – do we use more love than judgement?  How do we speak to ourselves – do we fritter our time away with mindless conversation or do we invite beautiful thoughts that prompt us toward fruitful, faithful living? 
 
Here at the lake, when the air is still and the water is perfectly calm, you can hear the conversation of two people in a canoe over a quarter of a mile away as if you were right beside them.  When the wind is blowing and a storm is brewing, you can’t even hear such sounds 100 yards away.  I wonder if that is a small parable for us today – that in our spiritual lives when the waters of life are choppy and the winds of threatening storms are stirring all around us – it is hard to catch God’s communications.  But when we can be peaceful, even in the turbulence, chaos and stress of life – we are more inclined to be able to sense the nearness of God and what God might be trying to communicate to us.
 
Sometimes silence gives opportunity to hear something very deeply – something that goes beyond words.  There are times of peace and contemplation when I sense the grandeur and awesomeness of God that can’t be found in the scurry of everyday living.  At such times I affirm in my innermost being just how great God is and by contrast, just how small and insignificant I am.
 
Hear again the familiar 10th verse of Psalm 46:
 
            “Be still, and know that I am God.”
 
If you want a simple meditation tool, pray each of these phrases for at least 30 seconds.
 

  • Be still, and know that I am God…

  • Be still, and know that I am…

  • Be still, and know…

  • Be still…

  • Be…

 
And then as if in antiphonal response, these words of Psalm 8,
 
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
            the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
    mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God, 
            and crowned them with glory and honor.
O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
 
Enjoy all your conversations this summer – and may they bless you and be a blessing to all you are in communication with, even if it’s yourself!
 
And that’s the good word,

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Rev. Dr. David D. Young
Senior Minister

NCPVE