There is, however, great value in literal silence-a value our generation may well have forgotten. In these days of roaring traffic, noisy factories, humming household appliances and megawatt stereos, an unexpected moment of silence can be almost frightening. The first option we demand for our automobiles is a radio/ cassette player; and people going to the mountains or the seashore for a picnic seem more
concerned about getting their ghetto blasters or portable TVs than they are about the sandwiches. One thing to be said for many of these people is that they are generous enough to share their sound with everyone within a mile's radius. With all due respect, however, I think I prefer the selfish kind who, while walking, running or cycling, get their necessary sound from those little earphones that allow the rest of us to make our own selfish choices of what we want to hear-or not ear.
All of this lust for sound has even carried over into worship: we
want sermons delivered with machine-gun rapidity and prayers prayed without a moment's pause for thought. Our generation would have been miserable in heaven when there was silence "for about half an hour" (Revelation 8:1).
Silence is the natural effect of many commendable emotions:
awe, humility, controlled anger, sympathy, a stricken conscience, and reverence, as well as the submission and acceptance of superior wisdom advised in Habakkuk 2:20. Even love may be expressed by silence. Someone has said that the depth of a friendship may be measured by the time two individuals can be comfortable with no word exchanged. Our aversion to silence may reveal the scarcity of some of these qualities.