God’s training programme usually involves the Silent Years.
He removes us from the crowd, strips us of our props and pretences, and puts us in a crucible of rigorous reality. Just us and him.
Scary? It can be.
The stonemasons who built the temple in 1 Kings 6:7 worked on the stones away from the building site.
God does the same with us. He take us out of the hubbub and hallelujahs, and chisels our temples into beautiful living stones (1 Pet 2:5). And chisels can hurt!
The Silent Years can be painful, lonely, and distressing. We see ourselves as we really are, and God as he really is.
But they establish intimacy between us and our father.
Samuel, John the Baptist, Moses and Paul went through them. Maybe you’re on the list, too.
It’s a painful privilege that seems to last far too long.
God may offend you, to see if he really is your Lord. He may hide his face, so that you can search for him and see him more clearly.
You may doubt him, yourself and everyone else, so that he can show you that he never doubted you.
Few people will understand what’s going on, and many will criticise you.
You’ll lose people who said they were friends, but discover people who were there when everyone else slept or ran away, some showing their nakedness (See Mark 14:51-52).
You may even quit, so God can show you that he never does.
The Bible says little about people’s Silent Years. It’s too personal.
The gospels say nothing about Jesus’ journey between the ages of 12 and 30. We’re just know that he emerged equipped for pressure, power, persecution and pain.
So will you.
You won’t be the same after the Silent Years.
And God won’t be, either.