The sound of silence

This week at Northbrook we continued our series on spiritual practices by looking at one that we hardly ever hear about anymore, silence and solitude. But I believe it is an incredibly helpful practice. It’s something that we all need in the midst of a culture that prizes noise and busyness. Just getting alone with some peace and quietly daily.

Silence and Solitude is simply creating space in your life to be still and silent in the presence of God, to meet him just outside the busyness of your life. It is how you connect deeply with God and yourself. It’s finding a few minutes a day to sit comfortably with no distractions, no noise – nothing – and just look out a window and encounter God on his terms. That’s it. Easy and simple.

But when I mentioned it, I know that half of you were overjoyed! “Yes! Finally a pastor who tells me I can be all alone, by myself, no one else around.” That’s because you identify as an introvert. But the other half, the extroverts, felt a cold chill. “Wait…you really want me to be all alone? No one else there? No texting or talking? Help!”

I have to admit, I identify with those introverts. I really enjoy spending time alone. I don’t love crowds. It’s not that I can’t be around others. Of course I can, I’m a pastor. I have the incredible privilege of being around the best people in Wisconsin every day.

But a good vacation for me would be on an island, all alone, no one else around to bother me. Just me and the surf. Of course my wife would be there too. Can’t leave her out. But just the two of us.

And even though I’m an introvert at heart, I have to tell you that silence and solitude don’t come naturally to me. That’s because the practice of solitude is not just about being all alone.

Have you ever wondered who was the loneliest human being ever? We’ve all heard about hermits, those who live by themselves in the woods. But if they went two miles they’d be back in civilization. I’m talking about people completely isolated from everyone else.

In the early days of the church there were a group of believers called the “Desert Fathers.” That’s because they lived in the deserts of present day Syria. They would go out, by themselves, build a small building and live isolated. Miles and miles and miles from anyone else. Some of you just sighed heavily at that prospect.

There are also stories of shipwrecks in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Castaways who were left adrift in the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean for days on end. No one with them, all alone, by themselves. Miles and miles and miles of nothing but water.

But the loneliest person in the world? That would be the third man in the moon rocket. Back when we sent people to the moon, they would always have a three-man crew. Two would man the lander to the moon’s surface, while the third would orbit and wait for them to finish before rejoining him. Think of that guy. Once he reached the dark side of the moon, he was 2,225 miles away from the next human being in existence. That’s a long way! That’s almost the same distance from New York City to Los Angeles!

And another thing. When he was on the dark side of the moon, he was shut out from radio contact. So he couldn’t even speak to another human being. But being all by yourself is not the same as being isolated.

Al Worden, who circled the moon during the Apollo 15 command module pilot, said this about being all alone:

There’s a thing about being alone and there’s a thing about being lonely, and they’re two different things. I was alone but I was not lonely. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What makes solitude and silence enjoyable? It’s not that you’re free from contact with anyone else. You’re still connected in some sense. You’re still reachable in a time of emergency. But what makes the difference is our connection. With God. With ourselves. And ultimately, with others. It is the connection that we make when we are all alone that makes being all alone worth it.