SILENT GRIND

Before the first pair of beasts marched into the ark, before the first raindrop of the new climate fell from the sky, Noah hammered and chopped and built for months, for years without a drop of rain.  He labored for an indeterminate time on what looked to all the world like a pointless project.

Before Moses challenged a monarch and freed a nation of slaves, he spent 40 years in the back country of Midian, studying under a shepherd priest but doing nothing publicly remarkable.

Before the day of shouting and tumbling down walls, the armies of Israel marched around the walls of Jericho for 6 days, saying nothing.

Before Nehemiah rallied a broken community to climb out of the rubble of their ancestors’ defeat and rebuild their own destiny, he spent days quietly observing and learning.

The last words of the Old Testament prophesy the coming of John the Baptist.  The 4 centuries between that pronouncement and John’s birth at beginning of the New Testament timeline is called “The Silent Years” and usually represented by a completely blank page.

Jesus’ entire adolescence is omitted from the Scriptures.  We know He learned.  We know He studied.  We know He travelled and experienced.  But we don’t exactly know what.  Those are the “silent years.” 

There are no overnight successes. 

The greatness you suddenly notice in the daylight is the result of many months and years you didn’t hear about and weren’t invited to see.   The unheralded hours of preparation.  The hours of training that weren’t posted.    The grind on mute. 

So take measure of your public life and compare it to your private prep.   Be sure that you do as much or more off-camera as you do in the public eye.  Resist the temptation to show it all all the time.  That is the pattern of greatness.  As the urban philosopher Lil’ Wayne said, “Real G’s move in silence, like lasagna.”

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

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SILENCE IS NOT CONSENT

“So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.” (Jeremiah 11: 14)

Often, people take arguments personally.  When you actively dispute their position, they take it to mean that you don’t like them--- personally don’t like them.  But that’s not necessarily so, especially if your argument is the honest exposition of God’s Word.

God told Ezekiel, “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me.  (Ezekiel 3: 17)

God sent Ezekiel to argue with Israel because God wanted Israel to change, because if Israel changed then God could help them.

When the prophets are loud, it means that God is offering mercy instead of destruction.

On the other hand, people tend to think that when you stop audibly disagreeing with them that it means they won the argument

Not necessarily so.  Sometimes it means that you’re just through arguing with this fool and you’re just gone leave them to continue in their foolishness and bear the consequences of it.

Like when God told Moses, “Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” (Exodus 32: 10)  

Silence doesn’t mean consent.  And prophetic silence, means exactly the opposite.    Prophetic silence means that God has turned against you so thoroughly that He doesn’t even want to talk about it.

There are men and women of God who truly live for the Lord and who speak His Truth with accuracy and integrity.  They speak the same things, confirming that they are led by the same Spirit.

When all or a bunch of them suddenly go quiet----- that’s when you need to be afraid, very afraid.

When they’ve been warning you and warning you about the path you’re on and they just suddenly shut up----- it doesn’t mean that you’ve won them over to your side.  It means that God has told them to let it go and move out of the way.

But we don’t see it that way.  We think we’ve won the “cultural argument,” “shifted cultural discourse in our favor,” or “isolated the opposition.” 

But consider the people who are quiet now.   Do they say what’s popular, or do they say what God tells them to say?

And if they speak God’s Word, don’t you think they’ll also keep God’s silence?

When the prophets are loud, it means that God is offering mercy instead of destruction. When the prophets go silent, it means that God is pissed off.

And it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a silent God.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116