Listening to Unspoken Truths
As world noises converge in chaos, I seek serenity. Pressed in the anvil of life, gripped between divergent opinions, needs, and concerns and my quest for beauty, peace, and calm, my heart leans inward, seeking voids without echoes.
Silence provides space to wrestle with life. We consider potential paths, dissect opportunities, and examine situations. Solutions appear. The quiet places value objectivity and examination. The still offers capacity for critical thinking, reflection, and study. In the void, souls recharge and brains ponder possibilities.
Others need our silence, too. When friends call to vent, share, or opine, often we seek first to fix. To apply Band-Aids. To interrupt. To share personal stories of overcoming and triumph over situations, disease, hardship, and people. We hurriedly want to encourage, teach, or equip. We’re not bad people for wanting to apply verbal salve onto exposed wounds.
It’s our common nature to alleviate suffering. It’s our spiritual nature to comfort.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
- 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
If others need our silence, we need to again lean inward. Their struggles require ears attuned to the obscure. Silence is an active place, without noise, but not without action. Our silence, their pauses, our moment. In these breaths, listening to unspoken truths is possible.
The calm creates an atmosphere to hear beyond the noise. To hear beyond words hurled our way. It’s sacred time to hear truths of the present, see glimpses into the future, and apply discernment predicated on wisdom.
Twigs rustling under the scurry of small animals share fear as we loom large into hidden worlds. Leaves floating through the air announce summer’s passage. Grey and black clouds racing overhead shout Danger. The sniffles of friends, as they summon courage to share painful stories, cry for our silence. Sharp intakes of breath, prior to a lunch invitation, isn’t about the meal. Smiles under glistening eyes betray secret feelings held hostage in weary hearts.
Listen and remember the one who suffered in silence. No doubt at times, he felt overwhelmed, tired, or caught in life’s vise. As spears entered his body, blood poured onto the ground, and as he accepted our weighty sins, he suffered. I would want to condemn the world and judge the wicked, but even in his pain, he listened, thought of others, and heard unspoken words.
He listened to the thief on the cross who said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43 NIV).
Jesus didn’t judge, talk over, share personal opinions, or extol on the horror of crucifixion. He heard the simple plea from a vulnerable man such as us. Asking for help. Needing to talk. I think Jesus heard this man’s fear and uncertainty. Jesus gave simple words of comfort and offered promise.
Listening requires surrender to self. Humbling requires modeling Christ. In silence, he prayed and gained strength. In suffering, he carried burdens. In listening, he heard. In death, he created life.
Let’s unclench the day’s turmoil and find peace. Hurl your concerns to the heavens so you can receive comfort and stand ready to hear the angst of others. Listen and hear the unspoken truths.
