Have you ever found yourself to be a victim of the dreaded keyboard warrior? These days people seem to find great pleasure in hiding behind their screens and their keyboards and commenting on people’s posts, their pictures, their lives. We seem to believe that it is our god given right to respond to everything to which we do not agree. Gone are the days in which silence said more than the words we speak or the things that are printed in social media.
In a book entitled “Desert Fathers and Mothers, Early Christian Wisdom Sayings,†annotated by Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, we find these words, “these three things are appropriate for a monk; exile, poverty, and endurance in silence.†I love this because it demonstrates the need to exercise humility as part of our faith. We don’t need to be monks to do these things, we do need to be practitioners of the Christian faith to do them well.
Throughout the Gospels, we often find that Jesus did not feel compelled to respond to everything that was asked of him, challenged him, or even attempted to provoke him. In the Gospel of Mark, we come to understand through academic study the existence of the Messianic Secret, where Jesus specifically tells those who’ve been healed and restored by his miraculous hands to tell no one. I find it amusing that even today it is difficult for folks to say nothing. Author and social worker Brene Brown discusses the idea of the “stinky first draft†of any email or post or anything we put in writing. She encourages folks to consider typing something in the moment but not hitting send or post, instead letting it sit for us to have a bit of time to reflect on the words and the emotion behind their origination. I appreciate this very much and try to practice that and encourage others to do that. I have just as many backspaces accounted for on my keyboard as I do actual letters being generated.
This world is filled with provocation everywhere we go, especially when it comes to social media. I am exhausted as I am sure many others are by the constant barrage of nonsense that comes through our TV, our phone, and our computers. Typically, the things that come our way are specifically designed to provoke an emotional and immediate response. Oh, if we could just practice the act of silence and humility to suspend our immediate response so that we might be prayerful in what comes out of our mouth and our fingertips.
I imagine with the state of our world currently being what it is, now would be a good time to begin a practice that engages in restraint, consideration, and patience. These elements, in and of themselves, contribute to our ability to successfully practice silence.
I can guarantee one thing that will happen as this becomes a spiritual practice: you will begin to see the brokenness of folks who need your prayerful petitions of healing far more than they can even see for themselves.
May you be blessed with peace in your silence and love in your restraint.
