Posts Tagged: "Silence"

attitude of listening post

An Attitude Of Listening

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Continuing in this theme of stillness / quiet / silence / listening / hearing… a few more words from Sue Monk Kidd’s book God’s Joyful Surprise:

The aim of silence is to create an attitude of listening to God.

Without listening, silence is just a vacuum. Inside our silence, we seek an encounter, a dialog, a participation with His presence. But learning to hear His whisper is the most delicate miracle of all. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears…”

If. That little word says a great deal to us, doesn’t it? It says God speaks, He knocks, He awakens… but… perhaps we will not hear Him.

Not long ago I stepped outside into the deep velvety darkness of an… Read More

Silence. Quietness. Stillness. Post

Silence. Quietness. Stillness. Is There Anything We Neglect More?

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

There’s a gas station near my house that I frequent. When I stopped in the other day, something was different. We were headed out together as a family for an adventure. As I stepped out of the car to fill it up, there was instant noise and flickering of lights… the gas station had upgraded their pumps—the new ones featured little television screens and speakers.

This is not my favorite.

I realized as I stood there waiting for the tank to fill that I had come to enjoy these 2-3 minutes of quietness. And now that space has been filled up with news reports, entertainment, and advertisement.

Sue Monk Kidd, in her book God’s Joyful Surprise, writes…

Silence. Quietness. Stillness. Is there anything twenty-first century America neglects as much? There is no reprieve even in the elevator where music is piped in to cover the silence. We drive to the store or home from work through a maze of billboards screaming more words at us.

All day the roar of technology around us is constant: traffic, planes, phones, dishwashers, television, videos, electronic toys that talk, blip and bleep incessantly. We are buried under a… Read More

listening prayer post

Lent Day 35… Listening To God Is Far More Important Than Giving Him Our Ideas

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic? —Lily Tomlin

I’ll admit it: whenever someone begins a sentence with, “God told me…” alarm bells go off in my head. It’s not that I don’t believe God speaks to people. I do believe. It’s just that I also know how easily we twist, manipulate, and hear only what we want to hear.

And yet, I wonder why we think of prayer as this one-way exchange where we give God our lists and then say “Amen,” as if to finalize the whole thing. Maybe we should be listening. Maybe we should be waiting.

The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says “Amen” and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him our ideas. —Frank Laubach

 

the space between the notes post

Lent Day 30… The Space Between The Notes

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. —A.W. Tozer

Sting (yup, Sting—as in the lead singer of the Police) once said…

Silence is disturbing.

It is disturbing because it is the wavelength of the soul.

If we leave no space in our music—and I’m as guilty as anyone else in this regard—then we rob the sound we make of a defining context. It is often music born from anxiety to create more anxiety. It’s as if we’re afraid of leaving space.

Great music is as much about the space between the notes as it is about the notes themselves.

Tina Francis spoke of this at… Read More

noise post

If You Listen You Will Hear

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Behold the One who can’t take his eyes off you. Marinate in the vastness of that. —Father Greg Boyle

Our world is a noisy place. Especially right now it seems.

There are so many voices clamoring for our attention.

But there is a voice that matters most. And if you listen, you will hear…

Henri Nouwen said:

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, “Prove that you are… Read More

filling all the spaces with noise post

Filling All The Spaces With Noise

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Hold, hold your tongue now. And let them all listen to your silence. —The Ting Tings, Silence

We are addicted to filling all the spaces with noise.

And when I say “we,” I mean us Charismatic Christians. That includes Pentecostals (who are the worst about this).

Please don’t think I’m writing this to throw someone else under the bus. If anything, I’m throwing myself under the bus. I am both a Charismatic and a Pentecostal (although I prefer the Charismatic label, and would like to add a couple descriptors like “gangsta” and “who loves Catholics”). I am constantly working to fill all the spaces with noise – background music, words, videos, more words, and more music.

In a conversation with Andy Jones about Sunday’s service at NWLife, he said,

“This could be taken the wrong way, but my favorite part of the baby dedication was when you guys were all done saying stuff and just stood there for a while holding and looking at Zoey.”

Funny how his favorite part was the one without any noise.

Maybe we need less cacophony and more opportunities to, as Depeche Mode… Read More