I have always found the most significant gift I have received during holidays or on birthdays to be the one I actually tend to think about less… socks. Socks never fail to be the greatest need I have. You see, I have giant feet. I wear size 14 shoes, so sometimes finding the right sized ankle socks is a struggle. In fact, it isn’t “a” struggle, rather it is “THE” struggle. What that ultimately means is that none of my socks last long because they are stretched out every time I wear them. So, on holidays when I get socks, I may not recognize the significance of that gift, but it ALWAYS comes in clutch and always turns out to be my very best gift. So yeah, this post is meant to ask for sock donations. That is it. That is the post. Period.
Obviously I wouldn’t come on here to talk about my need for socks (or maybe I would on second thought…). Socks and silence in my opinion are extremely related. They are the same gift. Silence is truly an underrated, not-attractive gift. Nobody goes viral by being silent. Nobody gets elected president or hired as CEO by being silent (Which may be part of the problem). When most people think through in their minds what success looks like, it usually does not include silence. However, it really should.
When the pandemic began back in March of 2020 I realized that I had a horrible relationship with silence. In fact, I resented it, and to be honest I discarded it like a sock on Christmas. Yeah, it is a practical need but it isn’t flashy. Plus, I have so much to do. I have so much going on. I don’t have time to be “silent”. I by no means ever want to indicate that the pandemic is good. It is horrible and COVID-19 has been so tragic, so please I hope this does not communicate any sort of insensitivity to the pain and the loss that so many have experienced. But the pandemic in many ways woke me up to my need for silence, and made me realize the incredible beauty of it.
Why is it that silence is so difficult to deal with? Honestly I think each of us could respond to this differently with our own reasons, but for me, it is fear. Fear of facing the emotions that I work so hard to avoid reckoning with, fear of being fully exposed and fully vulnerable to God with my doubts, insecurities, and needs. The gift of silence is that it brings me to a point of facing what is going on internally, processing it with zero distractions, and bringing it to God. When we choose to befriend this gift and face it, we may never just enjoy it, but we will grow in our self-awareness and in our closeness with God. Befriending silence doesn’t mean you always need to be alone; it means finding out what time of the day that you can be alone. It isn’t about isolation, rather intentional time for reflection. Jesus shows us the importance of taking these moments. In one of the examples of this, in Matthew chapter 14, Jesus goes up on a mountainside to pray, leaving behind everyone He was with to be alone. There, He reckoned with the act of dying for the world and all that it meant. He lamented to God and made Himself vulnerable. What a beautiful picture. Jesus is God. He didn’t have to do that, BUT he came to walk in our shoes, and take on all of our pain and all the things we were walking through. He showed us how to bring our worries to God; not through repression but through facing the silence and letting ourselves be uncomfortable and vulnerable before the One who made us and knows everything about us. As we live in a world that does not slow down, may we be people who choose to find moments where we can be silent. May we be people who become comfortable with a still soul.
There is no manual for this. There isn’t a 12 step ebook that can give you a game changing formula. You simply have to sit down, let distractions loose, and let God work in your heart. Prayerfully allow yourself to not dwell on the events of the day or the worries of your life. When we become still, it is a physical act of trusting that God can handle the things we desperately want to hold onto.
“He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
Jeremiah Storkson 