The bird recognition app on my phone tells me which of my avian friends are in the garden – robins, magpies, woody the woodpecker, little wren…This morning I turned it on; there was nothing. No songs, no noise, no friendly visitors. Complete silence.
…Talking to friends who see injustices in the world, bad things happening to good people, successful bad people. Their personal life has not turned out the way they would have hoped. Asking questions with no easy, obvious answers they hear silence.
…Talking to friends yesterday with family challenges, health uncertainties, tricky relationships. They’ve sought advice, prayed, tried to do the right thing, but nothing is resolved. The family challenges, health uncertainties and tricky relationships remain. The answer to their prayers appears to be silence.
How do we deal with the silence?
In the film/musical, Annie, mistreated in the cruel Miss Hannigan’ orphanage, sings:
When I’m stuck in a day
That’s grey and lonely
I just stick out my chin
And grin and say – The sun’ll come out, tomorrow
Annie’s solution to today’s grey, lonely silence is found in a sunny tomorrow.
Pandora was given a jar/box. Zeus told her not to open it. Driven by curiosity, she lifted the lid, and every misery, evil, disease, sorrow and conflict escaped into the world. She slammed the lid shut; only hope remained inside.
Pandora’s box points to unresolved world conflicts and the silence of personal suffering… Hope is all that’s left.
This morning I’ve been reading Amos… Israel have forgotten their God. God has called Israel back repeatedly, but they haven’t listened. They’ve created their own silence.
Amos says: ‘He who forms the mountains, creates the wind and reveals his thoughts to mankind, he who turns dawn to darkness and treads on the heights of the earth—the LORD God Almighty is his name.’
God created light and darkness, words and silence… With Pandora’s hope and Annie’s promise of sunshine tomorrow there’s a God who remains ever-present through darkness and light, words and silence…
So true, Malcolm. A delay marked by silence is not a denial. Through God’s prophets, we see repeated delays between the Lord’s promises and their fulfillment. Such are God’s thoughts and ways, higher than we can imagine and understand. But hope remains, for the Lord has already shown that He always fulfills His promises at His appointed time.
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I think, Grant, that as Christians we try to deduce a formula, create easy or trite answers to difficult questions. Sometimes acceptance, trust and hope is all that we have left.
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I agree. If easy and trite worked, I doubt we would have the 70+ psalms from David, most emphasizing his trust in God. That level of trust from David offers hope and encourages our all-important acceptance. Thanks for your thoughtful and inspiring posts!
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