The Need for Silence

So here is a question for you…why do we struggle so much with down time?

Like we dont know what to do with it…its awkward and weird…when we are confronted with moments of silence or solitude we often times feel like fish out of water dont we.

I think I know why...

I think it’s because we have learned to live our lives in a constant state of hurry and exhaustion…like we’re so conditioned to living on the go, go, go…that we dont know how to stop. And if a self-quarantine has done nothing else, I think that it has revealed to us that we dont know how to function when we are forced to stop.

Just think about all the stuff you have to do:

Honor your parents

Be a half-decent friend

Save money

Graduate from college

Do homework

Study

Go to class

find a job

save some money

find a husband or wife…or be lonely forever

keep up with your social status (IRL and online)

Stay involved in frats, sororities,

Find internships to build your resumes

Stay in shape

Eat healthy(ish)

Exercise

Read your Bible

Pray

Make disciples

So do you know what the reaction to this is? HUSTLE! Get it done!

Why We Need to Do Less:

Im going to suggest that it all goes back to 2007:

History books will tell about the year 2007 as the most significant year in human history outside of things like the Age of Enlightenment and The Protestant Reformation…like a giant shift in humanity

Do you know what happened in 2007? I INVENTION OF THE IPHONE..

The digital revolution in has forever changed the world that we live in...

54% of young adults say that no one knows the real them. (We dont spend time with people)

30% of young adults say that they experience anxiety or depression

Solitude Helps Us Encounter Who God Really Is

In December of 2013, one person tweeted at John Piper to ask him

“Why do you think young Christian adults struggle most deeply with God as a personal reality in their lives?”

Piper replied,

“Noise and distraction. It is easier to Tweet than pray!”

The reason why we lack strength in our spiritual walk so often, why we fail, is because we havent spent time experiencing the life offered to us in Christ. We are too busy talking about spiritual things, tweeting about spiritual things, dreaming about spiritual things, than actually tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.This is why the story of Jesus in the wilderness is so important.

Matthew 4:1–2 ESV

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

Most of the time when we read this passage we think that the Devil waited to tempt Jesus at his weakest point, when “he was hungry.” But Jesus wasnt at his weakest after he had spent 40 days in solitude with the Lord, He was in tip top spiritual condition. The truth of the Scripture came to life to him while he was in solitude.He was able to ward of the temptation of the devil not because he was super human—but because he had just spent 40 days in the wilderness growing in intimacy and dependence on God.

Silence and Solitude is How We Open Up to God

Psalm 131:1–2 ESV

1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

The Psalmist tells us that in the quiet, when his sole is at rest…in solitude…that’s where he finds contentment.He compares it to being like a child that is totally content in it’s mothers arms…Experiencing God in the still and quietness of solitude is where we are most satisfied. It is where contentment is born. Because it is where we can best encounter God as He really is...This was why Jesus made it a constant habit to retreat into solitude.After his baptism he retreated into the wilderness for 40 days.