I recently started reading the book “Invitation to Solitude and Silence” by Ruth Haley Barton. As I began reading, I questioned my decision to start a book on silence in a season of life when I have two young children at home. Most days silence for me looks like time in the early hours of the morning when the kids are hopefully still asleep. Even then, that time is brief and often interrupted.
Ruth Haley Barton talks about silence and solitude as “an invitation to enter more deeply into the intimacy of relationship with the One who waits just outside the noise and busyness of our lives. It is an invitation to communication and communion with the one who is always present even when our awareness has been dulled by distraction. It is an invitation to the adventure of spiritual transformation in the deepest places of our being, an adventure that will result in greater freedom and authenticity and surrender to God then we have yet experienced.” (pg. 18).
As I think back to my story before having children, silence and solitude have never been a discipline I have been drawn to. There are other disciplines that feel more at home to me, typically it is disciplines that involve input of information. I have noticed a resistance to sit in silence, to engage in something that feels unknown and out of control.
Barton talks about resistance to silence and names that we fear we won’t be met in the way we desire to be met by God. There is vulnerability to moving towards silence, not knowing what we will experience on the other side. There is also hope that God will meet us in the way we are longing to be seen and known.
I think about the work I do with clients. How often there is silence in the counseling room? There is room for emotion to bubble up, to be uncovered, for individuals to be seen. It takes courage for the individuals I sit with to engage in that silence, not knowing what will come on the other side of it. Often there is healing, increased awareness, and giving space to hear from God. Engaging in the silence in the counseling room has the ability to quiet the noise of everything else and give room for healing.
Engaging in silence, whether that is with God, in the counseling room, or with a friend, can lead to deeper intimacy. It allows space for someone else to meet you in your story, and it allows the possibility that you will be seen in the ways you are longing to be seen.
As this season of lent begins, I am wondering what it will look like to lean into silence. I am wondering what will happen on the other side. I am clinging to the hope that there is something God longs to show me in the silence.
Follow the link to learn more about Kelli and her work as a therapist https://ashtreecenter.com/kelli-summey/