Life and Calling (Part 2): Learn to be Quiet

Life and Calling (Part 2): Learn to Be Quiet

“And that ye study to be quiet”    -1 Thess 4:11

Contrary to many popular notions, the most charismatic, most talkative, most visible and most opinionated person is often not the most substantive leader. In fact, he or she is often the most wanting in several significant ways. A clear and obvious presumption that most of us have about leadership is that a leader has first achieved personal mastery, stewardship and leadership over himself or herself prior to assuming mastery, stewardship and leadership over others. And if the person who has either assumed a leadership role or has been chosen for leadership has not gained self-mastery, it will become painfully obvious to those whom he or she is leading.

The pathway toward personal mastery, which should occur well before assuming mastery over others is—more often than not—cloaked in solitude and obscurity, far away from the limelight, in the depths of quietness. As you learn to be quiet, you develop four important qualities that are all-important for successful leadership:

1. Deep and Profound Humility

It is within quietness that we are most introspective about our personal strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness and self-discovery lie at the very heart of humility, because humility comes when one arrives at the plain recognition that he or she does not (nor ever will) possess all of the talent that accomplishing a large task requires; simply put, accomplishing large tasks necessarily require others. Deep and profound humility in leadership is exhibited when one learns to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of others. This understanding leads to one of the most important facets in leadership: All people understand and show favor to the leader who recognizes that his or her condition is very much like everyone else’s.

“He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; And what doth the LORD require of thee, But to do justly, and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8).

2. The Longer You Wait, the Weightier Your Word

In quietude you become a skillful listener. There are too few leaders who have acquired the skill (and accompanying power) of being a good listener. And this is largely owing to forsaking the value of being quiet. The virtue of listening to all sides before speaking is often extolled, but it is rarely practiced. Listening to the opinions of others—whether they share your premises or not—informs and empowers your opinion. Therefore, how much weightier will be your opinion if you speak last (and having had the opportunity to hear first) than someone who speaks first (and has not had the opportunity to hear others)?

“The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him,” Proverbs 18:17

“[L]et every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19).

3. You Become Patient

Remaining quiet during personal trials ingrains the necessary patience for leading others. Consider the last time you achieved a goal only after enduring some difficulty. While you were certainly joyous at the outcome, you also discovered that there was some enduring value in the process that still serves you to this day. The process of enduring trials and tribulations worked within you a patience that results in the kind of maturity (perfect, entire and whole) that will allow you to demonstrate and model to those within your charge the kind of leadership that knows, understands and appreciates that trials and difficulties can not only be endured but also overcome.

“Therefore we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed,” Romans 5:3-4; “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults” (Lamentations 3:27-30).

4. You Gain Wisdom

Within quietness wisdom is found. True wisdom is like dew. It is uncontaminated; it falls silently (often unnoticed); it is easily absorbed by the earth and its vegetation; it often appears in the absence of rain and its effect is demonstrated upon parched lands in need of assistance with the production of fruit; it is no respecter of persons (for it blankets and falls upon everything and everyone underneath it); and similar to snowflakes, every drop of dew has its own distinctive character that is unchangeable in nature, rife with sincerity, authenticity and simplicity.

Oh, how this is true of the wisdom that is gained after quiet deliberation. The person who is inclined to reserve judgment and opinion until after he or she has given thorough and patient consideration to a particular matter will be the most likely possessor of this wisdom.

“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: And he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding” (Proverbs 17:28).

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 1:19).

As you “learn to be quiet,” which of the aforementioned qualities will you seek to develop first?