Silence

I have been attending a class at my church about finding God through silence and starting conversations with God. It was taught (very well) by one of the college students who attends our church. Last summer, she spent some time in France at the Taize Community. Go read about it - it's fascinating.

Her class centered around helping us to understand some of the practices they use in the Community, especially music, silence, prayer, and study. The class culminated in a worship service.

Part of the service included several minutes of silence.  Have you tried to be silent? A few things I noticed:

1. It is hard to find a silent location. Noise is all around us.
2. It is hard to silent your mind. Let me rephrase. It is impossible to silent your mind.
3. The difficulty in finding silence is magnified in a room of people. 

I think silence - real silence - is something we rarely experience. Even right now, sitting at my desk, there isn't silence. No one near me is speaking, no television or radio is on, but cars drive by, the keyboard makes noise, people on the floor above me are walking around. When I'm looking for silence, I hear all of those things. Normally, I ignore them.  Silence amplifies.

My mind moves from one item to the next. I'm not sure this is bad - if I'm centered, I think God can move my mind from one thing to the right thing, but I"m never sure if that is the case.

Have you tried to experience silence? Have you been able to find silence? Does it bring you closer to God?  I may keep attempting it and see where it goes.