out of the noise, into the quiet

For months, I have avoided silence.

At first it was the busyness of life, the texture of my days turning more complex with less time to sit for in the silence. Then I added on excuses, and slowly but surely, I lost the ability to sit without the buzzing of my thoughts.

Then came Into the Quiet by John Mark Comer.

I devoured this book quite quickly. I loved each chapter intro with a small way John Mark included the practice of silence and retreat into his life. A hike into the mountains. A day retreat away at a monastery.

Related Post: listen to the voice of inner conviction

A few years ago, the practice of retreat was embedded into my life seasonally. Every few months or so, I’d step away for a few hours. Get away from the noise, but internal and external, to spend some extended time with God. While sometimes boring, I had the experience of being in nature, setting aside my “urgent” responsibilities to focus on what’s important: my soul’s connection to God.

Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul.

Silence is great exposure. There are many, many times in the past few months that I intentionally neglected it knowing I would be faced with anxiety from work, regret from things I had done or failed to do. All of the negative emotions arise in me in the midst of the quiet. I am confronted with the reality of who I am. Silence forces me to recognize what I’ve been ignoring in my souls, the yellow lights that have been blinking for a few weeks or months.

The obstacles to silence are clear: our phones, our overexcited minds, our inability to sit in a quiet room alone. But one that people often fail to mention is the Enemy. There is a real enemy of our souls. One whose purpose is to thwart us, to introduce discouragement and despair.

This enemy latches onto all these terrible emotions that rise in us and adds fire, trying to get us to believe lies instead of the truth of our belovedness.

So I devolve from engagement to escapism: I reach for the bag of chips in the pantry, the device, the remote…I become more and more vulnerable to the temptations of the evil one.

But if we press into the silence, if we ignore the lies of the enemy, a deeper voice begins to speak. A voice that is wise and kind, the voice of a Friend.

You may feel fear or anxiety clench upon your heart and then sense God’s invitation to wait, to trust, to let go, to be at peace, whatever comes. You may feel confusion or despair and then hear God’s voice of direction whisper what’s next for your journey.

Into the Quiet is a stunning book, physically, and the places John Mark describes for his times in silence are equally as enthralling. If anything, this book made me want to take a trip to coastal California. Which is the one the main gifts of silence: often providing a space and the ability to recognize the beauty we daily take for granted.

Related Post: the gift of margin

What I most appreciate from this book is the reality that the modern noisy world is where we live. Most of us cannot pack up every weekend to go on retreat for 48 hours, but we can take 20 minutes where we’d otherwise be sleeping to sit in silence and notice our bodies. We can head out for a hike. Or take the tail end of the day to turn off all devices and be present.

Solitude is more accessible than we’ve been led to believe. This morning, I awoke, lit a candle, set a timer for 5 minutes, closed my eyes, and sat in silence. Nothing novel occurred. No mystic revelations. Just the quiet. A solid reminder that I can stop and breathe, and that’s enough.

would you calm the silence?

all the extra noise

’til all I see is You?

• Face to Face by Torchbearers

Signing off,

Gigi