There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven... a time to be silent and a time to speak...
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7b

It was a very normal day until I realized that I was actively destroying my own soul.

The day began with my alarm jolting me awake. I immediately turned on my BlackBerry to hear it chime for each voicemail and email that had been left while I slept. I stepped into the shower where I listened to my waterproof radio. I then turned on the television to catch some news while I dressed. Driving to work I tuned in to some talk-radio banter.

Throughout the day the chime on my laptop kept ringing as email arrived, and my cell phone continued to vibrate and ring on my hip. Before long, I needed a break, and I put on my iPod to go for a walk.

On the drive home, I again listened to the radio in an effort to drown out the blaring horns of frustrated fellow commuters. After eating dinner and tucking my five children into bed, I turned on the television to watch shows I had recorded on my Tivo.

As I drifted off to sleep, it dawned on me that I had not had one minute of silence during my entire day. It was possible, I realized, that I could live the rest of my life without ever again experiencing silence.

In that moment, God deeply convicted me that I was addicted to the false trinity of our day, the gods known as Noise, Hurry, and Crowds. I remembered the words of missionary martyr Jim Elliot, who said, “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds . . . Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.”

I began to ponder what Jesus’ life might be like if He lived today. Would He be available to all of His followers twenty-four hours a day on His BlackBerry? Would He have left His phone on at the Last Supper and been continually interrupted by needless calls? Would He have failed to stop and speak to needy people because their weeping was not loud enough for Him to hear over His iPod as He hurried past them on His way to a meeting He was already late for?

In that moment I prayed, asking God for His wisdom and help to save me from myself. God answered my prayer and reminded me that Jesus often took periods of prayerful silence to hear from the Father and to ensure not that He was doing everything He could, but that He was doing only what was most important. For example, before beginning His public ministry, Jesus spent forty days fasting from food, people, and noise in an effort to prepare Himself to fully accomplish what God the Father had given Him to do on the earth.

Moreover, the Bible says in Luke 5:16 that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places.” Jesus spent considerable time alone in silence to pray, rest, and focus on what priorities He should be devoting His time and energy to. This helps to explain why, in just three short years of ministry, Jesus had a greater impact on history than anyone else who has ever lived.

The Bible also describes multiple benefits of purposeful silence, including:

• hearing from God (1 Kings 19:11–13)
• waiting patiently for the Lord to act (Lamentations 3:25–28)
• worshiping God (Habakkuk 2:20)
• knowing God better (Psalm 46:10)
• praying effectively (Luke 5:16)

Since God convicted me of my addiction to noise, I have sought to conform my life more to the pattern of Jesus’, which has proven quite helpful. I try to spend at least five minutes an hour in silence, at least thirty minutes in uninterrupted silence each day, and a full day in silence once a month. During those times I find myself going for silent prayer walks to listen to God, writing in my journal, and sometimes doing nothing at all, which for me has become an act of faith that God is at work even when I am not.

My prayer is that those reading this who, like me, are guilty of noise addiction can also experience the regular gift of silence because that is often where God is waiting for us. There was silence before God spoke the world into existence, and silence for forty days before Jesus began His public ministry, which may indicate that silence is what allows us to speak as God intends.

Continued from Part 1.

It's a common myth that Christianity can be practiced in isolation.

It is sin that separates people and it is Jesus who takes sin away so that we can have fellowship. Therefore, one of the primary purposes of the Christian faith is reconciliation—to God and one another through Jesus. Furthermore, much of the Bible itself is written to communities of people, instructing them how to live together in love as God’s people.

In fellowship and by God’s empowering grace, we can obey the Bible’s commands to:

• Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
• Love one another (Romans 13:8)
• Accept one another (Romans 15:7)
• Instruct one another (Romans 15:14)
• Greet one another (Romans 16:16)
• Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
• Be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)
• Speak to one another (Ephesians 5:19)
• Admonish one another (Colossians 3:16)
• Encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13)
• Spur one another on (Hebrews 10:24)
• Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)

Through the spiritual discipline of solitude, we are reminded that in one regard our relationship with God is intensely personal. God called us to Himself alone, converted us alone, and one day we will die to stand before God alone. Through the spiritual discipline of fellowship, we also see that we have been saved into the community of the church. We are reminded that on the final day when we rise from our graves, we will rise together to be with Jesus forever as a family with our spiritual brothers and sisters and our Father God.

Recommended reading:
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Donald S. Whitney)
Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (Richard Foster)
Sacred Pathways (Gary Thomas)
Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places . . .

–Luke 5:16

As we study the spiritual disciplines, we learn that there are two sides to every discipline. On one hand, there is a contemplative practice, and on the other, there is a corresponding active practice. A healthy relationship with God involves both being and doing.

Subsequently, anyone who practices one aspect of a spiritual discipline without the other becomes increasingly immature and imbalanced in their walk with Jesus.

In the next series of posts we will examine the importance of both solitude and fellowship. Speaking of this in his wonderful book, Life Together, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who was murdered by the Nazis) wrote:

“Only in fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to be rightly in fellowship.”

From time to time I will have a series of guests contribute as we dig into the Psalms. This week we will hear from my dear brother Joel Brown from Mars Hill. Joel and I have been working together at Mars Hill in one way or another since I came to Seattle 9 years ago. He is a record producer, drummer, guitar player, singer, songwriter, sound engineer, the leader of MH band “Red Letter,” and currently serves as my “Director of Band Development.” If that weren’t enough he’s also in our elder process. Here are his thoughts on Psalm 3...

What’s going on in Psalm 3?

This Psalm begins with a note of context: “A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.” David wrote this prayer to the Lord while under an incredible attack on his kingship in the land of Israel. There is far too deep a plot to explain here, but the story (see 2 Samuel 13-19) is well worth the read and gives us a great perspective on Psalm 3. We see David’s abdication as a father, the rape of his daughter Tamar at the hands of her half brother, followed by David’s son Absolom’s fury over the event, and the drama that ensues as David flees Jerusalem from Absolom’s hostile takeover of the country.

At this time, despite his fear, conviction, and shame, David unwaveringly trusts in God. As he’s leaving town, people are throwing rocks and dirt, cursing him saying, “there is no salvation for [him] in God.” David knows that God holds the cards and will deal what he will (2 Samuel 16:5-14). David has a peace in God’s sovereignty. He cries out to the Lord and, freeing him of his anxieties, the Lord allows David to rest in comfort.

David is not our ultimate example

Though David ultimately trusted in God, looking to him as our example is unsufficient—our ultimate example is Jesus, as in all things. Jesus had far greater foes rise against him than David could have imagined. I am reminded of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane praying “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus, living by the Spirit in full submission to the will of the Father, had nothing to fear in what was the most terrifying of human experiences. He was abandoned by everyone. He was wrongfully tried and sentenced to the most gruesome punishment man has conceived. Most importantly, the Father turned his back on the Son and laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). What could be more terrifying? What could be a heavier weight to carry?

Yet, despite his circumstances, Jesus identified deeply with David’s prayer, “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.” In complete trust in His Father, He walked in silence to His death, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7)! All of this was brought upon him not as a result of his actions but out of the Father’s wrath, which Jesus willingly accepted in spite of asking that it be removed.

I wrote about this in my song “One Righteous Man,” inspired by Isaiah 53.

Learning how to be more like Jesus through the Psalms...

My first reaction to this Psalm was: Who are my foes? If I’m really honest with myself I don’t really have any ‘foes’ to speak of. Not in the David-against-Absalom/Nation sense anyway.

There isn’t anything inherently wrong with this approach, but if Christ is the center of the scriptures (John 5:39-40), I have to look deeper. Seeing Christ here allows me to have the perspective that God intended when He inspired David.

David’s trust in God is a calm reminder to us all that true rest and peace only comes from God (Matthew 11:28-30; Ephesians 2:14). We often pour ourselves out in an effort to find comfort in created things, but nothing created ever lasts (Isaiah 40:6-8). In thinking about this, I realized that true worship—living every aspect of our lives in full submission to the Father’s will—is comfort and rest and peace and all things that we most deeply desire.

Looking at Jesus’ example, “The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom” has new meaning (Proverbs 9:10). If you truly fear God you needn't fear anything or anyone else. God is sovereign over all and with complete trust in Him, fear of created things no longer exists. Wisdom is where the fear of the Lord begins and the fear of creation ends.

Father,
Thank you for Your salvation and blessing! Thank you for Your love and steadfastness! Thank you for Your wisdom, which transcends human understanding!
Help me to not fear man and seek comfort in created things. Help me to seek You in all things. Allow this to affect my heart so deeply that I would even willingly and fearlessly go to my death if Your will required.

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Discuss this psalm on facebook
“One Righteous Man” written by Joel Brown, performed by Red Letter, taken from the album “Death to Life” available early ’09 from Re:Sound (Resurgence music)

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