SOLIDARITY & THE VERY LONG CAR RIDE

I love long car rides. I love having the windows rolled down, a song playing from the speakers, an occasional conversation with a good friend, but even more powerful than such are the moments shared in silence.

Silence is an interesting thing. It is the residue left behind after impacting words. It facilitates a connection with another human being and communicates to them that their presence, the intimacy, and the lack of need to explain, justify, or manipulate that is most valued. Silence is a bond of trust and one of a deeper care and concern. Such occasions and invitations of quiet connection are not just about chance chemistry but rather about learning to discipline something much deeper set within each of us. The discipline of solitude is perhaps a key to true solidarity.

We live in a culture that rages war against silence. We have multiple televisions in our gyms, we ride the train and power walk through the city and on campus with our Ipods. We savor a Bluetooth headset for our photo equipped cell phones and keep our aim chats lit to ensure the rapture has not occurred and that there are still people out there. It is, in some cases, our ingrained defense mechanism against the anxiety of loneliness.

The existence of noise, enough stimulation, meetings, dinner dates, leaves no room for silence, the silence that sheds light on loneliness. It is this loneliness that leaves one self loathing, jealous, performance driven, or judgmental and critical of all the other apparently happy people. We may find that when silent enough we are but empty. If we sit in silence the anxiety that nobody cares may creep up on us.

Silence has an even more profound function when paired with the urge to justify ourselves through words. We fear so deeply that people will misunderstand us, that our reputations will be marred if we fail to stand and defend them or that others will find us insignificant if we do not make some noise to make others aware that we really are a leader of sorts. We break silences to let the world know that we are a force to be reckoned with. We want to be different, to be special, and to have the accolades and recognition of others. I have something to say something important. And if only you would hear me and be inspired by me you'd see that I'm right, or that you're wrong or that I'm brilliant or that I'm accomplished. and if only you'd recognize that what I'm saying is so right you'd join me in this lonely pursuit that helps me feel like there's purpose to being me! What I'm alluding to here is the spirit of self justification and self promotion that often undermines the beauty and blessings that come with silence.

Certainly, God has not left us to suffer here tongue tied, depressed, and deaf to the world. Rather I suggest God is quietly whispering to us and inviting us to foster and discipline a place of constant solitude where He can meet with us. A discipline of silence so that our true nature would come to surface and that in loving grace His Holy Spirit could speak truth. Our pride is revealed in this silent solitude, and our anxieties and insecurities lay bare. But this is one of the exact places where He works, this is where deep inner change happens.

He speaks to us in solitude about calling and secret things. During moments of silence while professors and supervisors misunderstand us, as our family members criticize and judge us, as our peers gossip and attempt to mudsling us, instead of blaming and defending ourselves we are instead invited daily to sit in a place of silence in a place of solitude. When we grow in the discipline of solitude and silence, we trust and find that God speaks, "I am here. I am your justifier. I will never forsake or leave you. The good work that I began in you I will bring to completion."

What's even more mind boggling is that it is in this solitude, that an increasing compassion and love for others is developed. We see others for who they are, not for what they do for us, not whether or not they agree with us, not if they approve of us, we simply see them the way God sees them and we realize we are loved greatly, bought with a costly price, Christ's blood, which is for them as well.