Finding God in the Silence

We had our last Rock session for our newly confirmed 8th graders this past Monday and Tuesday. I invited priests, religious, and married couples to share their vocation stories and wisdom with our teens. It was awesome. We started each session by watching the Fishers of Men video. I saw it a total of 6 times in two days. You think I would have gotten tired of it (and I did) but I also learned a lot.

Two lines really struck me watching this video. "With love, sacrifice is nothing." and "Vocations grow in silence. God calls to ears which are open and ready to hear. It is the same in a relationship with God. It only grows in silence...with a God who only speaks in silence..."

Growth in silence. It's the way the world operates. The sun rises and sets in silence. There is no shattering of the sky or earth. Have you ever heard a sun set? No. What about a flower bloom? Nope. What about a baby growing in it's mother's womb? Of course not. Silence. Beautiful, earth shattering silence. It's how God, our Father, the Almighty Creator, works.

It makes sense then that he would call us in silence. It's so un-natural, un-fun, such an un-human way of doing something. Think about it. How do marketing gurus get us to buy their stuff? To buy in to their programs? To commit our time or our money to something? Loud. Annoying. Commercials. Ads. Flyers. Billboards. Podcasts. Facebook pages. (Blogs...) It's in our face constantly.

But God is not human. And His ways aren't ours (Isaiah 55:8 - thank God). He calls in silence. He speaks in silence. Our relationship with Him grows in silence. He leads in silence.

And no matter how much that might frustrate us or annoy us (especially if we are impatient people), that's how He chooses to work. And He's the Master. It's like the Karate Kid movie...(hang on, let me explain)

The kid goes to the Master. He wants to learn karate so that he doesn't have to keep getting beat up by the bigger guys. The Master agrees, but on one condition, "I tell you what to do, and you do it - no questions asked." The kid agrees.

He shows up the next day ready to learn forms, kicks, punches, but instead the Master tells him to wash and wax all his classic cars. The next day, painting his fences, and then his house. What?! That's NOT karate. What the kid doesn't realize is what the Master knows. The Master knows karate. He knows what kind of motion and muscle strength it takes to master the discipline and art of karate.

How often does God tell us to do something and we just don't get it? (Happened to the Apostles all the time...) He often works in the details - training us, preparing us, teaching us, leading us, transforming us to be our best, the way He made us, whole creations in Him. But instead of trusting the Master, we try to do our own thing and we end up miserable. Instead of facing the silence of His presence, we turn the other direction and look for stuff to fill the void. We turn to creation instead of trusting the Creator.

What is it that is so intimidating about silence? Silence helps us to face reality. Reality is not always easy, and often times our prayers are met with silence and even when we strain to hear God, we find nothing. But when has it all been up to us? Who put us in control? Oh, that's right, it's not about us. It's not about us having it all in control. It's about trusting the Master.

I'm still working on it...waiting in the silence is not easy and trust in silence is not easy...