I couldn’t sleep last night, so I got up early and went to the gym. The air outside was heavy and still, the kind of quiet that makes you notice your own footsteps. Inside, the hum of treadmills and clink of weights felt like background noise compared to the silence I carried in my chest.

Silence can feel like both a gift and a challenge. Sometimes it presses in, making us restless and uncomfortable. Other times, it feels like a deep breath we didn’t know we needed—a place to settle into God’s presence.

In 1 Kings 19:12, Elijah doesn’t hear God in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire—but in the “sound of sheer silence.” That story always stops me in my tracks. How many times do I miss God because I’m scanning for the loudest sign, when what I really need is to listen in the quiet?

What if silence isn’t empty at all? What if silence is where God whispers the truest things about who we are?

Today, I invite you to lean into the quiet.

• Pause between reps, or in the car before heading home.

• Sit still for ten seconds with no phone in your hand.

• Listen, not with your ears, but with your heart.

You might discover that silence holds more than you expected—peace, grounding, and the reminder that you are deeply loved.

Prayer:

God of stillness, meet me in the quiet. Teach me not to run from silence, but to welcome it as the space where Your love surrounds me. Amen.