Trusting God in Silent Seasons

Many of us who drive nowadays have used what is known as the Global Positioning System, or GPS. The GPS is a U.S.-Government owned facility that “provides users with positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services.” 

For those of us who have taken road trips before the popularity of the GPS, we would recall using a website called Mapquest, where we would input our starting point and our destination, and print out map directions. Still others who are older than this may recall buying a map from the gas station or Canadian Tire, taking a highlighter to trace the route, and either have a travel partner read the route to you, or you plan your next stop after a long stretch to revisit the map to see where the next major transition point is.

This manoeuvring of a map would probably be foreign to many Gen-Z and younger youth. Road trips were adventures, and required the use of your own map-reading skills, compass-reading skills, and sense of direction. But there are many limitations to trying to use a map (or read Mapquest directions) while driving. 

1. It is dangerous to take your eyes off the road to read a map.

2. It doesn’t account for traffic, nor road hazards.

3. It doesn’t provide an estimated time of arrival, which makes trip-planning easier.

This is what makes the GPS a preferred option when traveling. It is made up of 24 operational satellites that provide coverage around the globe, and one of the benefits is it provides up-to-date information on vehicle location, traffic, road hazards, and road closures.

So imagine with me for a moment that you are taking a road trip across the country. This trip will take you into cities and provinces you’ve never been to (much more driven to) before. You put your destination into your navigation system (which relies on the GPS) and you’re all set to start driving. Now imagine that as you’re driving night falls, and after following the voice of the navigation system for several hours, you find yourself on a dark winding country road. Now you’ve been driving this stretch of road for hours, but you notice you haven’t heard the voice from your navigation system for a very long time. Our instinct is to check to see if we’re still connected, then to see if we’re still on the right route. The night gets darker, this unfamiliar road becomes narrower, and there is nothing but silence from our navigation system.

I imagine that in some sense this might have been what it was like for Jesus as the time for his crucifixion drew near. He knew the destination, and He was guided by the Father each step of the way to this point. But the path grew darker and narrower as the threats for his death became more real, and in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus checked his connection with His Father through prayer. 

The path to the cross through the Garden of Gethsemane invites us to contemplate three “Ts”:

Test: The Garden of Gethsemane represents the culmination of God’s plan that was put into action in another garden generations before - the Garden in Eden. In that garden, humankind faced a test - trust God’s power and wisdom, or try to rely on your own wisdom instead. Humankind failed the test, but since then God has been mapping out the route for our redemption. Here is Jesus in the Garden again, this time faced with the test of trusting and following God, or allowing the cup to bypass Him. Three times he faced the test in the garden, similar to his test in the wilderness by the devil.

Trust: Even though He didn’t hear a response from God during His prayers in Gethsemane, Jesus surrendered to His will each and every time. This act of surrender could only come from Jesus knowing that the Father’s will is greater than His momentary agony. More than that, He knew the Father. As a matter of fact, in John 10:30 he says “I and the Father are one”. Trust is borne out of intimacy and connection. Jesus would not have been able to walk this path if He didn’t trust that the Father knew what He was doing, and where He was taking Him. So even in the silence, the knowledge of the infallibility of the Father’s will and word made the agony of the cross conquerable.

Triumph: With his last few breaths Jesus lamented God’s silence as he cried “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). All this time The Heavenly Father didn’t speak, but this didn’t mean He was absent. On the cross Jesus felt the full weight of his humanness - his body had to go through the process of a human death - a distinctly separate experience from that of God the Father, the Spirit of the ever living God. And in His death, as Jesus declared in John 19:30 “It is finished” there was triumph. The plan that started at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden in Eden was finally made complete on the Tree at Calvary. All because Jesus trusted the Heavenly Father through the silence.

As we pause for reflection this Easter, may we always recognize that God’s ways and plans are far greater than what we can see on the road immediately before us. Sometimes we think His silence is rejection, or neglect, and we are tempted to pull out a map and go our own way because to us it seems safer. But God knows where all the road hazards and dead ends are, and he is diverting us away from them. As Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” There are things we won’t be able to know by looking at our own map. God sees the bigger picture. The prophet Isaiah reflected on the triumph to come when he spoke the word of the Lord in verse 12 saying: “For you will go out with joy and be led in peace; The mountains and the hills will break into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

And let us be reminded that sometimes, when we face the silence, God hasn’t left us alone. Instead He may be simply inviting us to connect with Him away from the noise and distraction, and experience the journey in His presence as He guides us through dark and winding roads home. This season, may you find reassurance in knowing that God’s silence isn’t rejection - it’s a retreat that will take us into a closer connection with Him, and the fulfillment of His greater purpose in and through our lives.

******

Now, I’m going to invite us to do something a little different this evening - if I may be permitted - in keeping with this evening’s theme. Before I do a short prayer, I’m going to ask that we spend one minute in silence. I understand that silence sometimes makes us feel uncomfortable, and we’re tempted to fill it with talking, or words of praise, or making a sound, but just for one minute I ask that we try to be silent. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, but we’re not able to hear Him because we’re doing all the talking. To get us prepared for this, imagine that the Holy Spirit came and sat right next to you. He already knows all your worries, and fears, and needs. What do you imagine he would be whispering to you personally right now? I’m going to start the clock now as you reflect on this.

*******

Heavenly Father, thank You for the privilege of coming before you in this fashion. Thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ to make the way possible for us to come before Your throne, and for being an example of what it looks like to trust you in our silent seasons. Many of us are faced with different circumstances where it feels like we’re encountering nothing but silence, Lord. Help us to not only be still, but to enjoy your presence and trust Your leading as You take us into territory where we will triumph. Thank you for being our Never Changing God, in Jesus’ name. Amen.