Today I was in a room all by myself eating my dinner. This room had a clock in it. I actually could hear the second hand moving. I have been in this room many times before. I have never noticed the sound of the clock. However usually when I am in this room there are other people in their talking to each other and with me. When I was finished eating others started to arrive for our meeting. Slowly the sound of the clock began to disappear because of the other noise. I tried to find the sound of the clock as the meeting progressed. I did actually hear it a few times in the midst of the other sounds. It reminded me of a plaque I recently purchased.
Here is a picture of it hanging in my sacred space (which is literally a corner of my living room).
It says,
Make time
for quiet moments as
God whispers
and
the world is loud.
I find that this practice while the simplest of concepts can sometimes be so very very challenging. So many things in the world seem to mask the whispers. But once I have made time, I find that I have moments that words can not describe.
What loud noises are preventing you from hearing God's whispers? Have you made time to focus and listen?
Here is a picture of it hanging in my sacred space (which is literally a corner of my living room).
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9 comments:
Very profound and so true. Sometimes we need to make time for quiet moments so we can truly hear our hearts and minds. (geoteach)
Lisa
Thanks for sharing. When we lost Benji, I started to listen to the important things in life. All the things I thought where important where no longer. Everything I took for granted I no longer do.
What a great think to stop and really just listen.
I like this post. It reminded me of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Our senses probably can't deal with the intensity that would come with not being able to filter the messages.
Your metaphor is very appropriate. We must listen, before we can hear the whisper.
I've been allowing my own self-involvement to get in the way of hearing the whispers. Trying to be less me-centered this year.
Too often we allow the cacaphony of life to overwhelm us and we allow ourselves to become victims of the Tyranny of the Urgent (Charles Hummel, 1967, IVP). We have to make time to hear that still small voice of God. 1 Kings 19:12 speaks of that small voice or "gentle whisper" that Elijah heard after an earthquake and that was in the midst of a great deal of turmoil in Eliha's life. In John 10:27 Jesus speaks of his followers knowing His voice and being able to follow it. I believe we cannot hear that Voice except in the quiet places of our souls and we must separate ourselves from the chaos of our lives to hear the Voice that speaks to us.
Reminds me of the movie "Into Great Silence" about the Carthusians.
My wife is a Quaker. Of course, their worship is built around silence. Nothing foreign to me as a Catholic. I particularly love the silence of Eucharistic Adoration.
Also love taking silent retreats, although I haven't had one in a number of years.
Love it!
Our church, Willow Creek, did an entire service on this concept. They began with a video which began with typical city sounds and tapered down to silence. Much of the rest of the video was then only white text on a black background, pointing out how hard it is too hear God with all of the other noise in our life -- not just audible, but emotional noise, visual noise, etc.
Your post took me back to that service, and I thanks you for that. I found it fascinating that so many people were uncomfortable with the lengthy silence -- even in a church. As a matter of fact, when the pastor got up to speak after the video, he joked about all of the coughing that had gone on during the "silent" video, saying "Y'all need to get some Vicks 44 or something. It sounds like an infirmary in here." Turns out he'd been able to use that joke for all three services!
Great idea. I like your new efforts here.
It's a good remimder that being quiet is always a good thing
mary
very nice, lisa.......
deb
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