Our headphones keep us so filled with artificial noise that we do not hear the deafening silence at the heart of it all. Our heads are filled, but our hearts are empty. If we dared to listen to "the sounds of silence", like the existentialists, we would be terrified like them. Where the ancients heard cosmic music, "the music of the spheres", we hear Pascal's "eternal silence of those infinite spaces [that] fills me with dread".But we need to hear that silence. We need it more than anything else in the world. Kierkegaard wrote, "If I could prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence. For even if the word of God were proclaimed in the modern world, no one would hear it; there is too much noise. Therefore create silence."
Ecclesiastes creates silence.
Ecclesiastes is the first and necessary step toward salvation for the modern world. The world will not go to the Great Physician (except on its own, patronizing terms) until it admits that it is desperately sick. "They that are sick need a physician, not those that are well. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
----------Three Philosophies of Life
Wow. That's some tough stuff. How many times have I gone to God on my own terms? And how absolutely arrogant is that--to stand before the Lord of the Universe and expect my way. How two-year-old of me. And how continually I must fight this battle.
It always reminds me how absolutely frightening the Lord's Prayer can be, when prayed mindfully and sincerely. "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done...." Thine. Not mine. Not the way I want it. Not the way I think is best. Not the way I would do it if it were up to me.
I suppose that's why it's easier to throw yourself at Jesus' feet when your world is crashing down around you. Then it is easier to see that we're not in control. But how do we continually do that when things seem to be chugging along all right? When our decisions are working. That's when it's hard for me to remember that in all things, at all times, it's HIS Kingdom I want.....
