The Path I Walk: Silence

I had to fight with myself this morning to get out to church. I love VPM and I always get a lot out of the service BUT it was cold, brrrrr~ which means some shoveling and scraping and warming up the car first. Factor in that I woke up way early and did some stuff and then decided to lay back down for a cat nap-a real one, complete with cats! Of course, then I overslept and kept trying to tell myself that I wouldn't make it in time so I might as well stay home. I was 5 minutes late, which is early on VPM time, and I got so much out of being there that I'm so glad I pushed myself to go...It's way too early in the winter to be hibernating in the house. Besides, I have this newfound love of snow going on! Well, Steve did not disappoint this week either. We are starting a new series loosely based on Christmas music. Not the music itself but the themes that are repeated over and over in many of the songs. This week our theme was "A Song of Faith" and we talked about how even in silence, God is at work! Steve pointed out that there was a 400 year lapse between the final prophet of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, basically picking up where Zechariah and Elizabeth find out that they will have a son and they are to name him John. This is, of course, John the Baptist who declared the arrival of Jesus. The message began with Steve not going up to the stage right away after the last worship song. He waited. And there was silence...You could look around the church and see the discomfort that people were feeling with this pause. People were wondering, "Isn't he going to go up there and give the message?" Steve's point was that we all seem to fill our space and time with noise: the radio, TV, talking, activities. We don't handle silence very well. Here was a situation where it appeared that God had been silent for 400 years! Nothing significant seemingly happened for the children of God, the Israelites, during that time. Life went on, people married, had kids, died, the ups and downs of life continued. But no big word, act, or discernable presence from God. A lot of the Israelites became discouraged, forgot about God, went off into other forms of worship, got rebellious, disillusioned, and disconnected. In this time, Zechariah and Elizabeth, both righteous people by God's account, had been longing and waiting for a child. They were already old by the time Elizabeth became pregnant with John. So, during this time when Israel did not hear from God-God was silent-Elizabeth and Zechariah were experiencing silence in their own lives in the area of not being blessed with children as well. At this time, all their prayers of years past were answered in God's time and in His way. Steve reminded us to think of times when we felt God was silent and seemingly absent in our lives. He urged us to remember that even in silence, God is at work! There are situations like that in most of our lives even right now. Sometimes I wonder what God is doing about restoring my children or helping me become completely healed from my divorce experience or solving financial issues or helping me to know for sure what I should be doing and what direction to take in the future...Sometimes I wonder where He is! What's He doing? What's the plan? It was good to be reminded that God is hard at work in my life and my circumstances no matter what it looks like or feels like at the time. Be encouraged, God is busy working on our behalf! Silence really is golden.