noise…
I went to one of my favourite cinemas recently and was struck by the slogan they run at the start of each film. It is designed to discourage the use of mobile phones or talking during the movie. The slogan? ‘Silence is Golden’. For some reason, I have found myself thinking about this phrase.
Is silence golden?
I love noise, I love living in a city because there is noise! I enjoy being around loads of other people, traffic. There is always a background sound, there is a buzz, a buzz that gives me energy, a buzz that causes me to feel part of something. In the age we live in, I enjoy the fact that when I make a journey in my car I can listen to the radio or to music. That when I walk I can speak on my mobile to anyone anywhere or listen to music on my MP3 player.
I enjoy noise. So, in what way is silence golden?
Silence can feel lonely, uncomfortable even vulnerable.
But maybe silence does actually bring with it an opportunity…
…an opportunity to connect with ourselves. Without the noise we start to hear how we are doing, what we are feeling, the decisions we are facing, how we see ourselves. Maybe this is why I can find it unnerving. Noise can be a distraction. Maybe sometimes the fact that we find silence uncomfortable says more about us than we would like to admit.
Maybe we need to face the silence!
I don’t know what this looks like for each of us, maybe we need to face how we’re feeling, to forgive or be forgiven, to enjoy the silence for our own wellbeing. Maybe we need to face up to how we see ourselves, to talk to someone about it. Silence does not mean that we have to be alone…sometimes facing the silence and connecting with ourselves means we have to talk to someone else.
…an opportunity to connect with God. There’s a story in the Bible of man called Elijah. He found that as he faced his silence he felt completely hopeless yet within the silence it gave him an amazing opportunity to connect with God. There is a wonderfully poetic part of the story just before Elijah encounters God. Elijah first encounters the noise of a violent wind, then an earthquake and finally a fire but we are told God was not present within any of these. Finally a gentle breeze comes and it is here that Elijah encounters God. Without the distractions of noise, silence also offers the opportunity to connect with God, to hear from God, to consider who God actually is. The question is, will we take it?
I still love noise but I am increasingly enjoying silence and the opportunity it affords me.
How about you?
Why not turn off the music, enjoy some journeys without making calls…enjoy the silence…who knows you might hear something, or someone, worth listening to.
And maybe then, silence is golden.
