The Lessons of Quietness

Learning to "Be Still" has always been a tough challenge for me in life. Surrounding yourself with students constantly begs for "action" and working in an office where the phone never stops ringing hardly lends itself to being "quiet." Yet still, I often find myself longing for that time where there is nothing going on but complete silence, but I forfeit that opportunity when I turn on my radio out of habit, pop in a cd to jam to the new Switchfoot CD (Go get that by the way, it's great!) or pick up the cell phone and make a few phone calls as I am going from one place to another.

So really, I have to ask myself, do I really yearn for those opportunities to be still before God? Truth be told, probably not as much as I think I do. Why? Because silence scares me. Why does silence scare me? Well, hear the words of Mother Teresa:

In the silence of the heart, God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence."

I shy away of silence because I am prideful. I do not want God to reveal to me that I am nothing. Yet, without God I am nothing. It is in those moments of silence before my Creator that He speaks to me. I want to spend less time talking about God and spend more time talking to God. I have come to the place where I must realize that all of this teaching, all of this theology, and all of these relationships are hollow unless I am being filled with God himself in that secret and quiet place.

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of host is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46:10