By Jake Kircher
One of my favorite Christmas hymns is Silent Night. There is a certain nostalgia for me as there was a beauty of singing this song by candlelight at our annual Christmas Eve service when I was growing up. Beyond that, there is a certain longing that the song provokes within me. In the hustle and bustle that accompanies this time of year, this song speaks to a contrast of peace, rest, and silence that is very much needed for so many of us.
Silence, though many of us long for quiet moments in the midst of our days, can actually be really challenging to find. Most public places are not only filled with lots of other people but usually, at least have music playing, if not more than one TV screen to fill our senses with noise. What’s more, is that even when we find ourselves in more private spaces – such as home or commuting in our cars – we tend to fill the space with noise from the radio or other screens. Which leads to an interesting question: Why?
Why do we tend to fill quiet spaces with sound? Robert Zatorre, a cognitive neuroscientist, provides some insight as he points out the fact that when it comes to our brains, silence doesn’t actually exist. “In the absence of sound, the brain often tends to produce internal representations of sound.” In its simplest form, this can be experienced anytime someone sings one line of a popular song. Even if they don’t continue singing, our brains will fill in the gap and continue the song in our heads. In its more complex form, this highlights the fact that when we are left with external silence, we are met with the internal noise of our own thoughts and emotions. I know I can’t be the only one that when encountered with this, is tempted to quickly find out what’s new on Netflix or what new episodes have posted from my favorite podcasts.
Rather than filling the silence with a distraction, the spiritual practice of silence invites us deeper into our emotions and thoughts in partnership with God. Meditating on the stories we are telling ourselves on a regular basis, allows us to confront those narratives and ask the Holy Spirit to assess if we are operating on things that are true or not. And the fact is, any thoughts that are not 100% true, aren’t actually helpful. Half-truths simply lead to emotional responses that don’t always match the situation, which ultimately leads to behaviors that unfortunately cause additional pain for us and others.
Ultimately, in the midst of silence, when we are truly vulnerable about where we are currently at, it is there that God can lead us into amazing, transformative work. As Henri Nouwen wrote, “[Silence] is not a private therapeutic place. [i.e. something to just make us feel better about ourselves.] Rather, it is the place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born, the place where the emergence of the new man and the new woman occurs.”
Put another way, we begin to engage silence by being honest about our thoughts and emotions and asking if they are true. We start to move through silence when we allow the Holy Spirit to replace anything that is not 100% true, with the full Truth of Christ in regard to our true identities and worth.
This practice of silence will not only begin to transform our inner lives, but it will actually lead to transformation in the people around us as well. Another benefit of the spiritual work of silence is that it actually forces us to ask another question: is the “noise” that we regularly contribute to the world helpful? When we fully embrace a practice of regular silence in our lives, it actually will send us back into the world around us heathier and with better contributions to give to those around us.
The next time you find yourself alone and having the opportunity to find some silence, what would it look like for you to not fill the space with social media or another distraction. Instead, engage the silence and take an inventory of your inner life. Invite God into your heart and mind and seek a transformation that is not only good for you, but for all of us.
