Duncan Christian Reformed Church

The Discipline of Silence

We see it often in Scripture: people being by themselves, alone, in silence. The patriarch Jacob flees from angry Esau, and he has a dream. Moses wanders 'round the wilderness for 40 years, watching the sheep. Elijah flees from angry Jezebel and comes to the mountain of God. Jesus was known to often go off by himself to lonely places. They were in the quiet, in the stillness, alone, yet not alone.

Richard Foster in his book that celebrates the spiritual disciplines, writes about the need for silence in our lives. When we build into our lives deliberate get-a-ways, we really learn to know ourselves and be ourselves. “But if we possess inward solitude we do not fear being alone, for we know that we are not alone,” observes Foster. The wisdom literature of the Bible affirms the need for this discipline. “Guard your steps when you go the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few” (Eccles. 5:1-2). This is the discipline: go near to God to listen. Do not be quick to speak or hasty to say anything to God. Let your words be few. It is in the silence where we will find out about who we really are (we stop, someone said, believing our own press), discover who God is (not who we want him to be), and be enlightened about the actions of others and learn to see them as God sees them.

This practice is important especially when dealing with other people. Foster writes: “We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us that we talk in order to straighten out their understanding. If I have done some wrong thing (or even some right thing that I think you may misunderstand) and discover that you know about it, I will be very tempted to help you understand my action!... One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our justifier” (Richard J Foster). We can so easily go into defensive mode, trying to make people understand why we said what we said, why we did what we did! We believe that if we talk about it we will feel better because then we'll have worked it through. Most often, though, talking about it doesn't help: the issue takes on a life of its own and causes us more trouble than the original! Let God justify us, not our own words.

Jesus practiced this discipline, and invited his disciples to do the same. “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:31). Consider this his invitation to you, personally. The first step is to be intentional about doing this. And when you fumble, start over again the next time. Will you join him?

Pastor Walt Vanderwerf