No words

Acts 9:7
“The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.”

On Friday morning the nation woke up divided in its decision.
The BBC had filmed a short documentary of the Barnes family who were divided in its decision in the days before the referendum. The family agreed not to watch or listen to the news on the nations decision and then the BBC filmed them hearing the result together. The response from the older family members who voted LEAVE and the younger members who voted REMAIN was the same, they were speechless. LEAVE didn’t think it would happen and REMAIN couldn’t believe it would.

Sometimes words don’t come easily, in fact they don’t come at all.
The men accompanying Saul was standing there watching their leader fall to the ground.
They heard a sound so knew something had happened but they couldn’t see in order to understand.
All they could see was Saul knocked to the ground.
Why? What? How? What now? How does this effect us?
Speechless.
But I think that’s okay. I think there are times when for a moment we should not speak for speaking sake. Times for when out of respect and impact of that moment, we should be silent. Shocked, stunned, perhaps upset, maybe anxious, or overjoyed. Whatever it is be quiet. Tomorrow is the day for words of hope or doom perhaps but right now is the day for no words.
There is no better example of this than when a friend is knocked down. Just be there, they don’t necessarily need your words of wisdom there and then, they just need you to be there. They need you to share their confusion, their question marks and there isn’t a better way than to use no words.