Silence is golden. Unless you have a toddler. Then, silence is very suspicious indeed! Truthfully, I should have been much more suspicious of myself last week at work. Let me explain.
At precisely 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, I walked out of my office, closed the door, and hiked the mile and a half to the train station in downtown Chicago. Getting off the train in the suburbs, I enjoyed a quiet evening with Diana.
At 6:35 the next morning, I stepped back into my office at Moody Radio—and soon discovered the problem. My soundproof office doubles as a recording studio, and the afternoon before, I’d done a bunch of recording. Apparently, though, after I finished my last segment, I forgot to hit the “Stop” button on the screen.
Bottom line: the computer sat there recording silence—all night long and into the next morning. To be more precise, it recorded 15 hours, 17 minutes, and 45 seconds. That's a lot of silence! I was occupying a huge chunk of hard drive space—with nothing to show (or hear). Silence was not golden in this case.
There are other times when silence is not golden. In fact, silence can be deadly. Example? When we fail to speak the name of Jesus to friends and neighbors who need Him. That kind of silence has potentially fatal consequences.
What if we could somehow harness AI technology to review every word we’ve uttered this past year? What if every word we’ve spoken could be analyzed and tabulated?
What would such an analysis reveal about the amount of time that has passed since we mentioned the name of Jesus to someone who doesn't know Him? Would it be weeks? Months? Would it be years—decades, even?
The thing is, God is recording our words. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 12:36-37, “But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Sometimes, silence is golden. But not when it comes to people who need Jesus.
- They need to hear His name.
- They need to hear our testimonies.
- They need to hear the way to Christ.
It’s time to end the silence about our Savior!
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? -Romans 10:13,14
