DO WE HAVE SILENT SPACES?

“…let the wise listen and add to their learning...” -Proverbs 1:5

As an acoustic ecologist, Gordon Hempton has spent most of his adult life listening. In fact, that’s what he gets paid to do (sounds like a sweet gig). Mr. Hempton looks for the places that are void of any humanly manufactured sounds. In a Newsweek videoclip  he noted that in the past 25 years the number of places with a noise free interval of 15 minutes or more in Washington State had dropped from 21 to 3. Maybe it is getting harder to find noise free zones but we can still be intentional about spending time in the Silent Spaces. Spending time in places where we can hear the whisper of God is vital to our relationship with Him. “One of the greatest achievements in life is not a seeing mind but a hearing heart” (Len Sweet).

We decided we needed a Silent Space at our offices to escape the clamor and clutter of day-to-day activities. Our hope was that this would become not just a place of escape but also a place of engagement with God. We carved out a small place that we call “The Chapel” with a faceted glass window and places to sit or kneel. There is a Bible and a simple cross as well as other devotional books. And if you’re in there when someone calls for you, you will not be disturbed. I use this space often and when I do I imagine putting a barricade against the past and the future to carve out a period of time where I just try to listen.

Are we missing opportunities to create Silent Spaces in our churches? Typically, when churches develop facilities the tendency is to focus on the public places like worship centers, assembly halls and classrooms. The balance of the square footage is then relegated to the minimal amount needed for support and circulation. When that happens, we forfeit the chance to be intentional about Silent Spaces – the places where the emphasis is on listening in silence.

"Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”
(Isaiah 55:2b)