We’re finishing our reflection on the relationship between authentic leisure and our ability to answer Jesus’ call to “obey my commandments” – which requires that we listen for Him.
And that requires silence.
You’ve probably noticed that the world isn’t big on silence. One might say the world has a phobia when it comes to silence.
Phobias can be illuminating.
You’ve probably had lunch on a park bench. It’s a narrow seat. A couple boards wide. Were you afraid of somehow falling off the bench? Did the thought even enter your mind?
Now imagine you’re sitting on a narrow seat, that just happens to be the roof-top parapet of a 100-story building. Your legs dangle 1,000 ft above the ground. Now are you afraid of falling off?
There’s a rational aspect of that fear (there’s a wee difference in the consequences of falling off a bench and falling off a skyscraper), but the there’s also an irrational element (aside from wind, there’s no greater likelihood of falling off the parapet than the park bench). Going further, many people experience the same fear even if they’re safely behind glass. Welcome to phobia.
With agoraphobia, as with all phobias, the object of the phobia (in that case, heights) isn’t the real fear. The real fear is the consequence associated with it (being scrambled like an egg on the sidewalk).
Sedatephobia is the fear of silence. And it’s on the rise. But, as with agoraphobia, people aren’t exactly afraid of silence. They’re afraid of the consequence of silence. But what is that? What could possibly be the bad outcome that people fear from silence?
Simply this – that nothing else is out there. Or, worse yet, that nothing else is in there – that we’re alone in our interior.
It has been said that the first loss of innocence is when we first tell a lie, because a subconscious voice rushes in and says – “see, you’re all alone.” The enemy always wants us to be separated; to feel alone. In response, Jesus tells us that He leaves the 99 to find the one lost sheep. Silence brings us to the heart of that battle – unity with God or isolation of self.
Welcome to the genesis of atheism.
It is often claimed by atheists that faith in God is little more than a superstitious response to the scary sound of thunder. Can it not also be claimed that atheism is little more than the superstitious response to the scary sound of silence?
Which claim is true?
Well, if every atheist in the world spent 15 minutes a day, for one month, honestly praying this – “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” – we’d have our answer.
Perhaps through God’s grace and our intercession this week one or two souls might have the wonderful breakthrough of “being still, and knowing He is God.”
Easter blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith
Postscript: John 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”