The need for silence

Often I find that I crave silence and time set aside to simply "be" with God in prayer. The other morning I took some much needed time and carved out an intentional hour to spend praying, reading my Bible, and journaling. Needless to say the hour seemed too short, yet also extremely refreshing. Amy & I found a devotional that quickly became one of our favorites, it's called The Message//REMIX: An uncommon Devotional. It is a devotional based off of Eugene Peterson's Message BIble, however it mixes the contemporary interpretation of the scripture with the ancient practice of Lexio Divina. Lexio Divina has the participant read a scripture, sit with it a while, find a word or phrase that God highlights for them, and then listen to how God is asking us to apply that to our life. I find this to be a very refreshing way to engage the scripture and thus have enjoyed the Solo devotional.
The passage that I looked at the other morning was Mark 6:30-8:30. The passage includes Jesus feeding both the five thousand and the four thousand as well as performing many healings and miraculous signs. As i spent time sitting with the passage, reading over it multiple times, the biggest thing that stuck out for me was that a handful of times Jesus either takes time to get away from everyone or at least tries to. Jesus seeks out the silence, the quiet place, where He can rest and pray. As i've read the Gospels i've noticed the need Jesus often has to get away and pray, especially following large events. How can we, who are only humans, not recognize our need to get away to the quiet place to rest and pray?
We live in a world that constantly pushes us to engage with what is going on around us and to ignore this God given need for solitude and prayer. I know that this has been a constant struggle for me over the past couple of years. I allow my to do list, my task with work, people to talk to, tv shows to watch, and places to see to take priority over times of silence and prayer. I believe this will always be a constant struggle, one of the ways we must be "in the world, but not of the world" and I will continue to fight the pressure I feel from society to live a busy and chaotic life so I may find Christ in the silence.