When storms of life are round me beating,

‘The desert fathers of centuries ago,” Henri Nouwen tells us, ‘understood the
importance of a silent environment for the cultivation of the spint when they called
out to one another, Fuge, terche, et quisse-—silence, solitude, and inner peace.

“Few of us can fully appreciate the terrible conspiracy of noise there is about us, noise that denies us the silence and solitude we need for this cultivation of the inner garden. It would not be hard to believe that the archenemy of God has conspired to surround us at every conceivable point in our lives with the interfering noises of civilization that, when left unmuffled, usually drown out the voice of God. He who walks with God will tell you plainly, God does not ordinarily shout to make Himself heard. As Elijah discovered, God tends to whisper in the garden.

‘‘Recently I visited a missionary center in Latin America where workmen were
constructing a sound studio for a radio station. They were taking careful measures
to soundproof the rooms so that no noise from the city streets could mar the
broadcasts and recordings that would emanate from that place. We must learn to
soundproof the heart against the intruding noises of the public world in order to
hear what God has to say. I love the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: We need

1], H. Jowett, Life in the Heights (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1925), 16. ?Cowman, Springs in the Valley, 124.

to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grow in silence; see how the stars, the moon and sun, how they move in silence . . .’