For reasons beyond comprehension that can only be explained by the phenomenon of channel surfing, I impulsively watched an entire episode of Grizzly Adams this past Saturday. Yes, an entire episode.
For those of you who are clueless, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams was a tv show that was only on for two seasons (1977-78) about this outdoorsy guy living in the mountains with a huge grizzly bear as a pet. In addition to the scenery, I was captivated by the simplicity of it. Grizzly Adams is vintage 1970’s network programming with a simple, predictable, and slowly developed plot line complete with folksy John Denver-ish theme music; and I’m guessing probably no more than two cameras were used to film it.
However, the thing that I was most intrigued by was the silence. In an era when we receive ads from pumping our gas and people scroll their IG feeds while sitting across from each other at lunch, it was oddly…refreshing. The Bible says, “Be still and know that I’m God” (Ps. 46:10). God is all around us but we have so many other competing voices that it can drown out His voice. Hearing His voice sometimes requires that we simply be still enough for the awkward silences. It may be awkward, but He’s still speaking. Sometimes we simply need to be still.
