2004 Term 1 Week 3 (Part B) - Silence in the face of Chaos

Men are silent when confronted by Chaos.
Examples:
Adam (Genesis 3)
Abram (Genesis 12)
Abraham (Genesis 20)
Isaac (Genesis 26)
Judah (Genesis 38)
David (2 Samuel 13)

Chaos is when life requires more from us than we think we have to give.
Examples:
Friend says, “My dad just got diagnosed with cancer”
Friend says, “I went to a funeral on the weekend”

When confronted by situations such as these we don’t know what to do or say. What we do next is our “silence”. For my I change the subject to something else that appears important, though it is just a cop out. Others do humour. They do or say something funny to avoid the situation. Others are speechless, they don’t know what to say so they say nothing. In each case, men avoid speaking into the chaos. Rather we stick to what we can do.

An example of speaking in to the chaos (or entering it) is to ask the person how they feel about their situation. Being with them.