Waiting on God in the silent places of the soul is an active waiting that contains a seed of expectancy and hope.  We wait with the kind of anticipation a night watchman feels as he waits for the morning sun to signal the end of his watch.

No matter how many hours of darkness he has to wait through, the watchman knows from experience that morning will come.  He is alert to the dangers of the night while every fiber of his being leans toward that coming.  His eyes have become practiced at recognizing the first ray of sunlight on the horizon.

This is how we wait for God---with longing, with expectancy, with alert awareness, our whole self straining to catch the earliest possible glimpse of this God who comes.  In so doing, we open ourselves to the possibility of being met by God in the silence that follows the storm.

-Ruth Haley Barton

"The LORD was not in the wind. . . the LORD was not in the earthquake. . . the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence."

-1 Kings 19:1-12