Read: Habakkuk 2:18-20
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. (v. 19)
Yesterday I wrote that silence is an important part of worship. It’s tempting to think that silence is always a passive thing, something that happens to us instead of something that we do. But sometimes silence can only be obtained with great effort. Sometimes it’s a struggle to find any silence at all. There are so many gadgets and contraptions in our lives that continually distract us from the silence that allows us to hear God.
The uncomfortable truth is that we are afraid of the silence. It is so much easier to look for a god in the noise of distraction. But any god that we try to conjure out of the noise is an idol. If Habakkuk were writing today, he might have said, “Woe to him who says to a television, ‘Awake!’; to a silent phone, ‘Arise!’ Can this teach? Behold, it is a pile of plastic and circuits, and there is no breath at all in it.”
So do what you have to do: pause your music, turn off that show, close your computer, and put away your phone. Tear down your technological idols, and follow Habakkuk’s urging to keep silence before the Lord in his holy temple.
As you pray, ask the Lord to free you from distraction and give you courage to encounter him in the silence.
About the Author
Steven Rodriguez lives in Rochester, New York, with his wife and four children.
