Do the words silence and football go together? At first glance or thought I am sure you would say no, but actually the two words do go together.

Back during my playing days of high school football, our team would board the bus for the trip to the out of town game. The next thing that would happen is Coach would address the team. He did not want any noise on the bus. He would tell us to be quiet and think about where we were going and what we were going to do once we got there. This was in the days before cell phones, I-pods and even walk-man radios. The guys would bring books and magazines to read. When we did talk to each other on the bus it was in whispers.

It did not matter if it was on the road or we were at home in our own fieldhouse, coach expected us to be quiet during pregame. The loudest noise in the locker room was the sound of our cleats clicking on the cement floor as we dressed in our uniforms.

Now why do you suppose Coach wanted it quiet? He wanted us to concentrate on the game. He did not want distractions and wanted laser like attention focused on what each of us as individuals were going to have to do to be successful as a team. Football is best played with passion and purpose and passion and purpose can be found in silence. The same is true for daily living.

So in your life today do you ever seek out silence? Do you have a place you go to everyday to just escape from all the noise of this world? We need to escape the phones, computers, television, radio, I-pods, people, cars, trucks anything that makes noise.

Your silent place might be the living room fifteen minutes before everyone gets up or thirty minutes after everyone goes to bed. Maybe you can go out in nature and sit among the trees or at the edge of a lake. One of my favorite silent places to go to is the sanctuary of my church. I will go in the evening time when no one else is around and just sit in the back pew and just escape the noise and be in the presence of God.

God is still in the business of speaking to us. Faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God and most of the time God will speak to us through his book the Bible as we read and study it. God will also speak to us through other people. Someday you may hear a sermon that you will think the pastor is speaking directly to you. God also still speaks directly to us. But you must be in that silent place of yours to ever hear him.

When you first go to this silent place of yours be prepared. The world will just descend upon you. You will think of all the things you should be doing instead of sitting silently before God. Stop! Relax! Take a deep breath and try to clear your mind. Just know that Satan is shooting fiery darts your way.

You may need to say a prayer. Maybe you need to read one chapter of the Bible, but slowly after several weeks of being in this silence every day you will start to look forward to this time alone with God. You will not want to miss this part of your day ever again. Shoot for five to ten minutes to begin with in this place of quiet and silence.

Committed Christians are prayer warriors. They find their place of silence and develop a relationship with God. Every relationship on this earth is a two way street where both people talk to each other. If you spend time developing a relationship with God in your place of silence, expect God to speak to you, because he will.

Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God