Why Do We Have a "Reflective Silence"?
What is Reflective Silence?
At Missio, following the word of God preached, prior to receiving Communion, we engage in reflective silence for a period of two minutes.
We take this moment to allow what we’ve heard to sit in our hearts and to prayerfully consider how we might internalize the preaching in our daily life.
What Does the Bible Say About Reflection?
The book of Psalms opens intentionally with a reflective poem on the one who is blessed. After several clarifying things the blessed person does not do, we are told that, “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.”
The word meditate is based on the word to chew, closer to our word “ruminating.” The scriptures, in several places, use this clever word to supply the picture of a cow quietly standing in a field, continually and slowly chewing grass until it has been sufficiently broken down to be properly digested.
I find this idea very foreign to the lifestyle of a 21st century American.
We don’t meditate on anything! We are constantly being encouraged and trained to pass from novelty to novelty. The steady dopamine “bump” achieved by accruing trivial facts or interesting insights is seen as the quintessential mark of the well informed, educated citizen.
Sitting in silence and thinking more than an extra moment on something gives most of us anxiety.
The scriptures would tell us, this habit of moving at a hurried pace without reflection is on par with not chewing our food. A digestive disaster! Not to mention that it robs us of the joy of savoring and enjoying what we eat!
The word of God, especially, requires our commitment to take time with it. Complimenting this idea of ruminating is one of Christ’s favorite commendations, picked up from the prophet Isaiah: “he who has ears to hear, let them hear.” Of course, there’s physical hearing, but we seek a different kind of “hearing.”
Letting the words strike resonance with our mind and heart and allowing them to be carried into our being is a truly internalized form of hearing and an indispensable ingredient to a life of this kind of “hearing” is reflective silence.
What Might Reflection Look Like?
The word of God is alive and active, says the book of Hebrews. God speaks to us through the scriptures primarily, and sometimes through the words of another person, through memory, reflection upon experience, and many other means. We learn to discern God’s voice when we engage in silent reflection.
Saint Augustine recalled in his autobiography that what he considered to be his conversion occurred while he quietly strolled through a garden. He strolled, thoughtfully reflecting on many challenging conversations and conflicts he was trying to work out in his life. He was wrestling with unbelief and sin, the preaching of Ambrose, some false teachers, and also wrestling with his rising fame as a rhetorician.
Suddenly, after his reflection, he thought he heard “Take up and read”, over and over again– he wondered if there was a boy calling to his friend–but the words were gripped with an intensity that felt personal and aimed at him. He happened to have a scroll of the book of Romans with him, and he hastily opened it and read the words of Romans 13, “clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ”. Following his own silent reflection, Augustine emerged a changed man.
I have had many moments in my own life where reflective silence has been the means God used to get through to me. I’ve found peace to make big decisions that had been paralyzing me for months (getting engaged, pursuing a career, changing careers, staying put in some ways, moving on in others). I’ve also realized that there was sin in my life that needed to be repented of and confessed.
While some of those came in a 2 minute window of reflective silence like we practice together, many required much more. The beauty of this practice of corporate silence is that it cultivates and strengthens our desire for silence. This spurs us on to put more and more moments of reflective silence into our regular life. I find this to be a main source of vitality in my walk with the Lord.
At Missio, we set aside a time of reflective silence, prayerfully hopeful that it becomes one of many moments for us to hear the word of God speaking in the silence of our own hearts.
If we practice together, we hope that it becomes more natural to practice in our day to day lives, slowly becoming the kind of person Psalm 1 describes, who meditates on God’s law day and night.