PREACHING in the backyard yet again.... in silence, we are listening. ...A Troubling QuestionThis brings us to a troubling question — one that many people ask at some point. Why is it that just at the times we need God most, he is often the most silent? I don’t know about you, but this bothers me a lot. Much of my relationship with God seems to be characterized by silence. Atheists will tell us that God seems silent because he’s absent. “No one’s home at that address. Duh.”