Silence has a deep place in the hearts of many men. Psalm 46:10 reads: "Be still, and know that I am God." While this verse speaks to our need to quiet our soul to listen, the craziness and challenges of life oftentimes gets in the way. Silence, or a place of escape, becomes a place of refuge to gain strength and/or clarity. It becomes a place to process life's demands, challenges and deep emotions. But this silence, if misunderstood by those around him, can be isolating and may even cause pain to those who long to understand what's happening in his heart. I wrote a book years ago called DECODING THE SILENT MAN'S LANGUAGE (it's available on Amazon). I wrote the book because my wife would always worry about my silence. She constantly asked me, "What are you thinking about?" There were times that I was able to formulate the words to explain what was on my heart, and there were times when I didn't really know what was going on. All I knew was that my silence was a means of escaping internally to a different world. This world became the only place for me to just "be" without "doing" anything. Although all of life's demands where present with me in that world, I could compartmentalize exactly what I wanted to focus on while I was there. My wife took it as rejection; for me, it was a method of escaping. The stresses of life can be difficult to understand and stand under. The weightiness of life's hardships becomes a bit much to even consider at times. I'd go as far as trying to withhold my thoughts and problems from my wife because I didn't want to burden her with my issues. When I did answer her call to just let her know what was in my head, I QUICKLY realized why the Scripture tells us that women are the weaker vessels. This means that our capacity as men allows us to carry more. Our shoulders are broader. Our hearts are bigger. Our muscles grow larger. We have a higher capacity. Still, the weight becomes too much to carry, which is why more men end their lives without murmuring a word to anyone. One day he's throwing the ball with his children, and he's gone the next. How could this be? Well, he lived in another world within. That was his place to escape.