6.10- The Sounds of Silence
6.10-
The
Sounds of Silence Proverbs
10:19-21; John 8:1-11
David Roper
A fishing buddy of mine observed, “Shallow
streams make the most noise,” a delightful turn on the old adage, “Still waters
run deep.” He meant, of course, that people who make the most noise tend to
have little of substance to say.
The flip side of that problem is that we
don’t listen well either. I’m reminded of the line in the old Simon and Garfunkel
song Sounds of Silence about folks
hearing without listening. Oh, they hear the words, but they fail to silence
their own thoughts and truly listen. It would be good if we all learned to be
silent and still.
There is “a time to be silent and a time
to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). Good silence is a listening silence, a humble
silence. It leads to right hearing, right understanding, and right speaking.
“The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters,” the proverbs says, “but one
who has insight draws them out” (Proverbs 20:5). It takes a lot of hard
listening to get all the way to the bottom.
And while we listen to others, we should
also be listening to God and hearing what He has to say. I think of Jesus,
scribbling with his finger in the dust while the Pharisees railed on the woman
caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). They wanted to stone her. What was He doing?
May I suggest that He could have been simply listening for His Father’s voice
and asking, “What shall we say to this crowd and this dear woman?” His response
is still being heard around the world.
Well-timed silence can be more eloquent than words.
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