Speechless in Seattle

One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get to write 52 articles a year with the confident assurance that the editor will decide to publish them all! To be honest, that's also one of the frightening things about my job. The discipline of writing a weekly column keeps me searching God's Word, pondering our readers' needs, and prayerfully evaluating what really needs to be said.

That's the key question: What needs to be said? As anyone in the communication business understands, when you're regularly expected to "say a few words," the pressure to say something can result in unnecessary verbiage that merely fills up space, takes up time, and wearies everyone. To preachers who feel the pressure to come up with an inspiring message every week, it's amazing how quickly Sunday rolls around again. Since parents want our children to avoid mistakes and learn from our experiences, it's tempting to fill the air with unsolicited advice that sounds more like nagging than encouragement to young ears. Sunday school teachers and small-group leaders often find it easier to engage in lectures than to endure moments of awkward silence while students evaluate, question, and search for their own understanding. What really needs to be said?

I thought about that question during a recent trip to Seattle. Most Sundays I preach somewhere (and I'm eager to do so), but on this particular Sunday morning I had no up-front responsibilities. Others led in prayers and songs, and a young preacher delivered an insightful message from the book of James. My speechless Sunday in Seattle proved quite refreshing—a reminder that the Good Shepherd often restores our souls best when we walk with him beside still waters (Psalm 23:2, 3).

"Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue" (Proverbs 17:28). But it's hard to hold our tongues in a verbose culture where we're bombarded by talk radio, TV talk shows, and talkative friends. Nowadays, a verse like Habakkuk 2:20 sounds about as up-to-date as a silent movie: "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him."

Be silent? When there's so much to say? Even God has a lot to say, and so do we if we faithfully preach, teach, and write his Word. Besides the roughly 774,000 words in the Bible, God has spoken to us through his Son (Hebrews 1:1-3) and through the nonverbal testimony of creation itself: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. . . . There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world" (Psalm 19:1-4).

But God also shows remarkable restraint with words. The Gospel writers could have written much more than they did, but the Holy Spirit guided them to include only what is necessary for our salvation and service. Many of Jesus' teachings are remarkably short. The Lord himself models what he asks of us: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Ephesians 4:29).

There is "a time to be silent and a time to speak," wise Solomon concisely observed (Ecclesiastes 3:7). May God give us wisdom to know what time it is.