Last night our students participated in our semi-annual prayer night. We set-up stations and allow students to pray in various forms (for example, instead of just praying for God to forgive you for something, we had students write out what they would like to be forgiven for and place them on nails on the cross, making Jesus' sacrifice a little more tangible). It always amazes me how students we haven't seen for a while, God send them to this event.
There was a theme to last night. Silence. For over an hour every prayer station was to be done in silence. Some loved it, some hated it. But in our discussion at the end of the night I kept realizing how little we have silence in our lives and how much we need it. We are barraged by noise coninually in our lives. There are very few places or times of day where we have just silence. Now with cell phones we have the ability to have noise all the time, even if we don't want it that little device can go off to tell us we have mail or a text or to complete your daily challenge in Temple Run II (that was oddly specific).
And I think we do that for comfort. We have grown comfortable in noise, we enjoy it, we crave it. Too much silence hurts. Veronica Roth said this: "Noise and activity are refugee for the bereaved and the guilty." Almost like we use noise as an escape for the calm of being with Jesus because we're scared of it.
So here's my challenge, be silent. Find a place to pause. Away from the internet, TV, radio, machines, people, away from it all, even if it's just for a few minutes a day. It may do you some good.
T
FYI, next week I will have help writing the blog as FIRE and WATER Students will be posting stories from our summer mission trip. I hope you get a chance to read about their adventure!
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