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Restorative Power of Silence

Audio / Produced by The High Calling

Transcript

Journalist Howard Van Smith had long admired a friend whose very presence brought people a feeling of peace. Van Smith asked his friend where such calm came from, and his friend answered with a single word: "Silence." Then he added: "It’s the greatest refresher I know."

Van Smith’s friend explained that the world's noise, pace, and demands drain us of what only stillness can restore. The discipline of silence isn't easy at first, he said, but through it we learn we are more than the sum of our activities.

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. Van Smith's friend called it silence. You may call it meditation, contemplation, quiet time, listening prayer, or repose. Be still and know that God is God . . . in the high calling of our daily work.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

(Ps. 46:10)