Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. – Job 13:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 24, 2012): Job 13

I remember the service. It was held on a Sunday night. And in this church that meant that it was held in a small room in the basement of the church. And one of the common elements of an evening service in this church was a sharing time. It was a time when people just said whatever it was that impacting their soul. On this night, it was a young man named George that had something that needed to be said. And so he stood and slowly spoke the pain that was in his heart. And then he sat down.

After he had spoken his pain the room was filled with an awkward silence. No one quite knew what to say – and I have to admit that deep down I was hoping that the silence would win out. There are times when any answer is simply the wrong. There are times when the only appropriate action that we can take is to listen. And this was just one of those times.

  

I learned very early on that the most important trait necessary in order to be a friend is simply the ability to listen. We all face times when that is all we really need. We don’t really need answers, in fact during those dark times of the soul we know that answers don’t really exist – and whenever someone tries to answer our pain, the answers always seem weak and inadequate – and somehow the words seem disrespectful to our pain. It is in those times that we just want someone to listen.

Job was in the middle of one of the darkest points in his life. Earlier I mentioned that Job’s friends were doing exactly the right thing as they simply sat in silence and listened to him. But the uncontrollable temptation in the middle of the silence is to say something – to break the silence. Often it is really just white noise. We really don’t know what to say, only that the something needs to fill the void created by our silence. It takes a special kind of friend to just let the silence reign.  And for a while Job’s friends seemed to sense that, but then the silence had to be broken.

And so they chipped in their white noise, not really knowing what it was that needed to be said. But now Job reminds them of what is necessary. He doesn’t need their words. He needs their ears. He just needs his friends to listen to him. There are times in all of our lives when that is all that any of us really need.

My hope for you is simply that when you experience your dark night of the soul that you will be lucky enough to find a friend that will simply listen. And when you meet the Georges of your life, I pray that you will have the courage to give your friends your ears instead of your words.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 14