Silence is scary.

I was reminded of this during a recent 5am shuttle to the local airport. There I was with the driver and two men who I did not know. Let’s just say that there wasn’t a whole lot of small talk.

Only silence.

You have probably had that same kind of experience. You’re with strangers and simply have nothing left to say. That’s perfectly acceptable but we often feel like we should be filling each moment with at least some form of noise.

When it comes to prayer, silence can also be scary. We aren’t sure what to do. We want to hear the Lord’s voice but He rarely speaks audibly. We wait and nothing seems to happen.

All of this is normal. Don’t stress. I have this happen too.

So here’s a simple trick for when you have a silent moment of prayer- be still and let the thoughts come and go. You’ll be bombarded with random thoughts, odd things that pop into your head. You’re not sure why. You had no idea that your head was so noisy.

Imagine that you’re on a beach and looking out on the water. You see a boat come into your sight. You could swim out to that boat and get a closer look. After all, it looks so interesting and the people on the boat are having a great time.

Or, you simply let it go. You could just go back to whatever you were doing and just let the boat sail by.

Now apply this same trick to your prayer life. You’ll close your eyes when you are praying, wanting to just “be” with God. You’ll want to enter into the silence and then a random thought will pop into your noggin.

Like the boat metaphor, let it go. Sure, you could linger with that thought and really get a better look at it. It’s probably interesting and worth your time. But now, for at least a few minutes, just let it go.

You can do this. I’ve been using this trick for years and it works nearly every time. It can work for you too.