THE LAST RIVER MILE

I’ve tried to ignore this for most of my adult life. But sometimes it’s just too obvious. If I’m in a group or a one-on-one conversation, frequently when I begin to speak I catch people glancing at their watches or looking quickly to a nearby clock. It’s like they might be thinking, “OMG, he’s talking again. How long is this going to take?!?”

Often this happens with people I know well, such as a good friend I met with earlier this week. Once in a while, though, it occurs with people I don’t know well, if at all. I’m probably being hyper-sensitive about some of this, if not egotistical. (Because it is all about me, after all…JK!) But I can’t help but wonder if I’m sending some kind of a he-talks-too-much signal.

The odd thing about all this is that I am an off-the-chart introvert. Words don’t come naturally or easy to me, and I’m very comfortable in silence. It’s always been weird (or evidence of a gracious God) that I was in the vocation I was in. Maybe that created an overly verbal monster in me. My Old Testament professor, Walter Brueggemann once said of me in an evaluation, “…tends to wordiness.” Then there’s the definition of preachers overall – people who take twenty-five minutes to something that could be said in five. And consider this very blog. I’m here because I can use more words than other social media outlets recommend or allow.

Whatever the case, I’m evidence of a world in which we seem to assume that the loudest voices and the most words win in the end. A deluge of words are fired at us every second with fully automatic velocity. A lot of talking means little or no listening.

Around the same day I noticed my good friend glancing at his watch I was convicted by a daily devotion in LECTIO 365 focusing on the discipline of silence. The Bible is filled with verses valuing silence. (If interested, some are Psalm 46:10, Psalm 62:1-5, I Kings 19:12, Habakkuk 2:20, Mark 6:31, Matthew 14:23.) One of my life verses is Psalm 46:10, which I frequently hear as, “Geoff, would you just shut up and be with me quietly for a while?”

It’s not just about what silence does to benefit us. It’s about the benefit it brings to others, first and foremost. Francis of Assisi is said to have urged Jesus-followers to “Preach Christ. If necessary, use words.” I frequently note the faith leader Paul’s admonition to esteem others as better than ourselves. (Philippians 2:3-4.) Such esteeming must begin with listening; really, deeply listening. I can’t do that as long as I’m tending to wordiness.

So maybe the whole glancing at watches thing is God’s way to get my attention and to hold me accountable. I hope so.

I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

Suggested resource: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.