The difficulty with silence is the noise of not talking. The sound, which drums up from our soul once the melody of speech, has decrescendoed out of our lives.

It is often we misunderstand this melody –

the things that we say,

                                               articulate,

                                                                      and produce

– as the primary part of our personhood.

And although it takes much skill and revision to produce a melody – be it simple or complex – the melody simply gives color to the drumming core of the soul.

The things that are lived as rhythm.

The things only heard by those listening for the baseline,

that can only be altered by silencing the melody.

But when the melody is silenced we must confront the pulsating self, whose tones are sometimes dark and whose sounds clamor. The rhythm, which seemed on point with the melody’s overlay, is understood to be jumbled, wild, and superficial.

When silencing our projections and listening carefully to the rhythm, we see that the harmony between who we are and who we present ourselves to be exists only in snippets. We realize there is a deep disconnect and that the rhythm is plagued by mistakes, unnatural improvisation, and inconsistency.

It is only when silencing the melody that we can learn allow God to work in our lives – through our hard work, wisdom from others, open eyes, etc. – to synchronize our self with God’s symphony.