At a recent worship service the pastor spoke the line, “Silence in us any voice but yours.”  I’m not sure what the rest of the prayer said because I got stuck on that line.

Silence in us. What a wonderful idea and how rare in our lives these days.  Last night I couldn’t get to sleep because my mind was racing and all the voices in my head were so noisy that I couldn’t find a quiet place for rest.  I woke up several times and the voices were still there, clamoring loudly.

Silence is a precious commodity.  Silence allows us to hear things that we couldn’t hear otherwise.  Sometimes we don’t even realize how noisy our lives are until we stumble into silence.

There is noise all around us all the time.  People, responsibilities, promises, conflicting demands that speak in our heads until we often lose our own voice.  How can we hope to hear the voice of God amid these distractions?

It is hard for us to be silent.  Try it now.  Try just a minute of silence.  Can you go even a minute without noise around you or within you?  How long can you go before those voices in your head begin demanding your attention?

There is a beautiful old hymn that goes, “Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand; ponder nothing earthly-minded, for with blessing in his hand, Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.”  Can we give God our full attention, our full homage, unless we can learn to be silent before him?

Perhaps this is how we can begin to be silent:  by pondering the glory of the risen Christ.  Trying, at first for just a few moments, to be silent and listen for his voice.  Focusing on the light, or peace, or joy that is given to us by Christ alone.  As we get better at it, we can listen for longer periods of time, until we silence any voice but that of God.

Silence in us any voice but yours.  There are so many things that distract us, Lord.  Lead us, in this moment, if only for a moment, to listen for your voice.  Speak to us, Christ who wants our undivided attention.  Help us to create places of silence so that we can hear your voice in our lives.  Amen.