The saying “silence is golden” is something I find difficult to understand.
When I was younger I never really valued silence, nor did I see the need for it. For me, silence was a missed opportunity to voice your opinions, to be productive, to communicate. I would’ve rather been tuned in to a set of headphones than tuned in to what seemed to be an empty void of noise.
When I became a Christian in college, my ideas about silence still lingered. But as I’ve matured in my faith over the years, I’ve realized the importance of practicing silence—how central it is in having effective communion with God.
Beginning to Be Silent
My journey in practicing silence began after I graduated from college, as I was entering more fully into adulthood. When I moved back to San Jose from Davis, I quickly realized that my spiritual journey was about to run into some bumps. My anxiety levels increased as I plunged into a season of unemployment. The pressures of stepping into adulthood began to take a toll, and I felt ill-equipped to deal with life after college.
I began to realize that the root of my anxiety was negative self-talk that I’ve accumulated over the years. This—along with Facebook, the surrounding culture, and other media outlets—made it difficult for me to find a sense of well-being.
So I began to learn how to unplug from all the distractions by practicing silence. The most important parts of the process were (1) creating space for silence and (2) making silence about more than just shutting out noise. I needed time and space to be in communion with God and therefore started to look for places of solitude that made silence easier to obtain—parks or other places in nature that had few people.
But once I found silence, my internal voices started to surface again. The negative self-talk made it hard to come before God and hear his voice. Silencing those voices has always been a struggle for me.
As I’ve learned to practice the discipline of silence, however, it’s become easier for me to discern which voices are from God and which are not. When we meet God in the silence we are able to hear him. And when we are able to come to a place of stillness with God, it becomes easier to surrender our thoughts and anxieties to him.
Once I started incorporating silence and solitude into my weekly routine, I realized that my anxiety was lower and that it was easier to stay grounded on a regular basis. My relationship with God changed too; I moved from being a busy doer to one who fully enjoys the presence of God. As silence is practiced, it becomes easier, and over the long term it has added a new degree of wholeness to my spiritual life.
What We Find in the Silence
Learning to become still before God is difficult, in part because our culture tells us that we need to be productive doers, and that God can’t meet us in stillness. Internal voices and outside noise compete with God’s voice.
But God desires to meet us in the silence. When we become still before him, we are acknowledging that he is in control. And it is in that place that we can appreciate the presence of God in a new, life-giving way. Silence ultimately goes beyond just a simple discipline; instead it opens up a whole new level of intimacy with God.
Alex is a University of California—Davis graduate and InterVarsity alumnus. He attends a church called The River in San Jose and currently serves in the church’s worship and youth ministries.
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