Can just ten minutes make you a mystic (someone with experiential knowledge of God in your daily life)? Probably not. But there are a number of short practices and brief habits which, if engaged in over time, will complement the growth you experience through longer practices and more time-intensive habits.
One of those is silence. The Psalms speak highly of silence:
- Silence can conquer sinful anger (Ps. 4:4).
- God desires to bring us to experiences of “still waters”–restful and quiet moments (Ps. 23:2).
- Stillness is one of the ways in which we stop trying to take control and allow God to take control (Ps. 37:7).
- It is often in quiet rest that we best come to know and experience that God is truly God (Ps. 46:10).
- It is in times of silence that we find salvation and hope (Ps. 62:1,5).
- God wishes to bring us to times with him when we are like a weaned child with its mother, resting quietly in his presence (Ps. 131:1,2).
All of those who write about the spiritual life write about the importance of silence. Our soul needs silence like our belly needs food. Some aspects of God can only be learned or experienced in silence.
While there a numerous ways I try to incorporate silence into my own life, one habit is easy to incorporate into even the busiest schedule: each day on my drive to my office, I spend about ten minutes in total silence. I intentionally turn off the radio, I tell God that I want to spend this time just being with him, and then I’m quiet. For ten minutes, as a drive a route so familiar that I’m on auto-pilot, I can be present to God. I don’t try to solve any problems. I don’t carry on a conversation with him. I am just silently with God. It’s the best ten minutes of my day.
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