I See Better When It’s Quiet

Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this. When I’m looking for an address while driving at night, I always turn the radio off so I can see better! I knew it! You do it too!!! What is it about our senses that we have to turn off one sense to make our other senses sharper?

Have you noticed how you close your eyes when you smell your favorite dish cooking in the kitchen? It seems your nose cannot fully savor the aroma without removing your sight. Even hearing a favorite song may cause you to close your eyes so you can fully focus on the memories and emotions it evokes.

The human body receives sensory information through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. When I allow myself a time of quiet my other senses sharpen in response. It’s in times of silence I can see God working in my life and I can hear no other voice but His. My senses respond to the smell and taste of God’s creation all around me and I can feel God’s hand in mine as I settle into His presence. The Bible invites us to use our senses to understand that the Lord is good.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. – Psalm 34:7-9 (NIV)

I love what Mother Teresa said about silence. “If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says there is a time for everything and one of those things is silence …

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

There is a time for everything and I especially enjoy the times of silence with the Lord. Sitting quietly helps me to see my world through God’s eyes. I really do see better when it’s quiet.