I found a post that is worth reposting.
Fear is one of our most basic and prevalent emotions. We don’t usually think that silence is something to be afraid of.
But in Minneapolis
there is a room that absorbs 99.9% of any sound in that room. It’s the world famous
echo free chamber of the Orfield Laboratories. It’s: “The quietest place on
earth.” Total silence can warp a person’s spatial orientation so the only safe
posture in said room is sitting because one’s balance goes out of whack.
But it’s not
falling that people fear, it’s the deadly total silence. NO ONE has been able
to stay in that room for more than 45 minutes. So what are we afraid of? Being
alone with our thoughts? Having to face ourselves instead of all the other
distractions? Realizing we don’t make very good company?
I don’t have
the answer why we seem to fear silence, and neither has anyone else offered an
explanation that I know of - except God.
It’s in the
silence we best hear His voice, and that scares a lot of people. I know many
make noises about wanting to hear God speak to them, specifically to know His
will for their lives. But though they hear, they don’t listen; meaning obey.
In I Kings
19:1-13 the unparalleled prophet had just come through an amazing victory. Now
he’s on the run…defeated. He’s fled to the wilderness to escape an evil queen
that had put out a contract on his life. It was in a cave Elijah expected to
hear God’s voice amidst all kinds of noise—a mountain shattering wind, an
earthquake, a raging fire. But God wasn’t to be heard in those sounds of nature
raging. His voice came in the silence. There he received a fresh calling from
God.
It was in the
barren wilderness where Jesus clarified his history changing calling. He spent
an entire night alone listening for THE Voice. Only then did he choose the 12
men who would change the world: His disciples. “Jesus often withdrew to lonely
places and prayed."
On the backside
of a desert Moses was sent back to the place he ran from 40 years earlier to
now lead God’s people, Israel, out of slavery and into the freedom of the Promised
Land.
So what are you
afraid of? There are 365 “Fear nots” in the Bible. The most common follow up promise
is: “For I will be with you!”
Go seek a quiet time
alone with the One who promised he would never leave us, a place to hear from
the One who most often speaks in the silence. Even if you can’t stand the
silence for more than 45 minutes what you hear from Him will be worth the
discomfort.
