The Still Small Voice

I ran stuck again.  My emotional and spiritual gas gauges were running lower than empty.  They were running on fumes.  There was entirely too much to do and not enough hours in the day in which to get everything done. And, rather unexpectedly, it happened.  The president of our nonprofit organization pulled me aside and wanted to talk.

“When’s the last time you spent any time away from it all, in solitude?”  His words cut through me like a warmed knife slicing butter.

           

“I don’t think I ever have,” came my humble reply.  “I don’t have enough time to think about solitude much less do it.  I have...” and I began listing my excuses as to why it was impossible to practice the spiritual discipline of silence and solitude.  “I have a wife, kids; work...If I take time off who will keep things straight around here?”  On and on the excuses went.

His response amidst my anxiety came, “Well, if you don’t make time within the next month for a day of silence and solitude, then I will force your hand...You need to get away and recharge, by yourself.”

This scenario still plays through my mind when I contemplate the spiritual discipline of silence and solitude. In a culture that prides itself on fast paced initiatives and actions it becomes increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to practice the discipline of solitude. I mean there is never enough time to do what we feel needs to be done.  There are always papers to write, books to read, projects that need to be attended, bills to pay, jobs that require more than forty-hour work weeks, friends to hang with, church activities, kids, school commitments, and on and on, the list is long.  And yet...Yet we are told to take time out, to practice the spiritual discipline of solitude and silence.

You may be asking why taking time to get away, to be alone with yourself is important.  You may think as I did, modeled by the opening scene of this short piece.  Here’s the reality behind this spiritual discipline.  Did you know that God has a special call on your life?  For some this reality is nothing new.  However, for others the reality that their life has a meaning and purpose in God’s grand metanarrative is incredible.  The problem for all of us though, and it’s also the reason this topic falls under leadership, is that even though God calls, often we’re too busy to hear.  The noise and chaos of our life threatens to drown the voice of God out into something as annoying and insignificant as a mosquito buzz.  Then, when it seems as if we have run aground again, we wonder where God is.  Worse yet, we wonder why God refrains from speaking to us.  We must learn that God will not YELL over top of our chaos. Do you remember how God came to Elijah? 

¹¹ He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to    pass by.”  Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.  Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  ¹⁴ He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.  I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19:11–14 NRSV)

Just as Elijah met God through the still small voice, so God calls to each of us today as well through His still small voice.  We simply must learn anew by developing our inner spiritual being’s, a job only done through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, but aided by the discipline of silence and solitude. Especially important is this to us as leaders.  Other people are trusting that we will not lead them astray.  So, if this is our job, then we owe it to ourselves to be sure we are hearing from God.  Thus, silence and solitude do not exist solely in mere fairy-tales.  Rather, these two disciplines must be an ever-present reality.

So the question that begs an answer this week is will you commit to practicing silence and solitude?  Will you bring your inner spiritual being into a place where you are willing and waiting to hear from God? He still speaks, in a still quiet voice, but we must humble ourselves and quiet ourselves in order to hear his voice. Are you willing?

For this week, this is my view from the less Traveled Road.