Tag Archives: quietness and stillness

Daily Riches: Speechless Before the Cross (Barbara Brown Taylor)

Posted on by under awe and wonder, Jesus the Savior, Loving Listening, Silence, The Sacrament of the Present Moment

“When that Word fell silent on Golgotha–when, after a loud cry, both the high sound of his nervous system, and the low sound of his beating heart stopped–the earth shook with grief. Rocks made the only sound they could, slitting open with small explosions that were their best version of tears. The veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, with a sound of such ripping that those who heard it thought it was the sky. The whole inanimate world leapt in to fill that silence, while poor, dumb humanity stood speechless before the cross.” Barbara Brown Taylor

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. ‘Look at you now!’ they yelled at him. ‘You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!’ The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. ‘He saved others,’ they scoffed, ‘but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, “I am the Son of God.”‘ Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.” Matthew 27:39-44

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Can you think of a shameful moment when everyone was silent and you regretted later that you hadn’t “leapt in” to speak? …perhaps to speak up for Jesus, or as he would have, for someone else?
  • Can you think of a holy moment when you should have “stood speechless”–with no desire or attempt to speak? Did you?
  • What does it take for you to stop talking? Are you filling sacred spaces with unhelpful words? Can you stop talking long enough to worship? …to truly listen?

Abba, teach me when to speak and when to be silent.

For More: When God is Silent by Barbara Brown Taylor

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and God seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest! Please leave a comment or question. – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: Christ Knocks at the Door (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Edwin Robertson)

Posted on by under Awareness, Contemplation, Jesus the Savior, Mysticism, Silence, thirsting and longing for God, Waiting on God

“Every day, a quiet voice answers our cry, gently, persuasively, ‘I stand at the door and knock.’ Should we tremble at these words, this voice? The Spirit that we have called for, the Spirit that saves the world, is already here, at the door, knocking, patiently waiting for us to open the door. He has been there a long time and he has not gone away. His is a very quiet voice and few hear it. The cries of the marketplace and of those who sell shoddy goods are all too loud. But the knocking goes on and, despite the noise, we hear it at last. What shall we do? Who is it? Are we afraid or impatient? Perhaps we feel a little fear, lest someone undesirable is at the door, dangerous or with malignant intent. Should we open? In all this fuss, the royal visitor stands patiently, unrecognized, waiting. He knocks again, quite softly. Can you hear Him? And each of you may ask: Do you mean He is knocking at my door? Yes. First quiet those loud voices and listen carefully. Perhaps He knocks at the door of your heart. He wants to make your heart His own, to win your love. He would be a quiet guest within you. Jesus knocks — for you and for me. It takes only a willing ear to hear His knocking. Jesus comes, for sure, He comes again this year, and He comes to you. …We fear that we are not ready for Him. Is our heart ready for His visit? Is it fit to be His dwelling? The dwelling place of God? Perhaps, after all, Advent is a time for self-examination before we open the door.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and will dine with him,
and he with Me.”
Jesus in Revelation 3:20

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Have you quieted yourself enough to hear the “quiet voice” of the “royal visitor” at the door?
  • Perhaps he wants to “win your love.” …to “make your heart His own?” Do you have that kind of relationship with Jesus?
  • “Jesus comes, for sure …and He comes for you.” Can you do some “self-examination before you open the door” to fellowship with him? …are you ready for his advent?

From where shall my help come? From you O Lord.

For More: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons edited by Edwin Robertson

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek God and he seeks you. I hope you’ll follow and share my blog! My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. Thanks! – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: The Value of Mental “Down Time” (John Hersey)

Posted on by under Busyness, Rest and Relaxation, Self-care, Silence, Solitude, Stillness
 “Fifty-eight percent of American adults have a smartphone today. The average mobile consumer checks their device 150 times a day, and sixty-seven percent of the time, that’s not because it rang or vibrated. …all you really have to do is go outside and see how many people can’t even walk without staring at a screen. …one thing is clear: Paying attention to our smartphones through so many of our waking moments means our minds don’t spend as much time idling. And that matters! We talked to boredom researcher Sandi Mann [who said]… ‘You come up with really great stuff when you don’t have that easy lazy junk food diet of the phone to scroll all the time.” Mann’s research finds that idle minds lead to reflective, often creative thoughts…. Minds need to wander to reach their full potential. During bouts of boredom our brains can’t help but jump around in time, analyzing and re-analyzing the pieces of our lives, says Jonny Smallwood, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of York. …inspiration strikes in the shower because it’s a moment when we’re not really looking at or focusing on anything else. Researchers have only really started to understand the phenomena of ‘mind-wandering’ — the activity our brains engage in when we’re doing nothing at all — over the past decade or so. ‘There’s a close link between originality, novelty, and creativity… and these sort of spontaneous thoughts that we generate when our minds are idle.’ [Smallwood] But when mental stimulation is a touch of the phone away? ‘That’s where daydreaming and boredom intersect,’ Smallwood says. ‘What smartphones allow us to do is get rid of boredom in a very direct way because we can play games, phone people, we can check the Internet. It takes away the boredom, but it also denies us the chance to see and learn about where we truly are….'”
 .

“Pay attention, Job, and listen to me;
be silent, and I will speak.”
Job 33:31

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • We all have our reasons for moments of obliviousness to others. Is your phone one of your reasons?
  • Can you embrace some moments of boredom, or must you distract yourself? Can you be “reflective?” What does your answer say about you?
  • Can others get your undivided attention? Can God?

Abba, meet me in “off” times when my mind is at rest.

For More: “Bored and Brilliant”

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: An Enhanced, Enlightened Life Through Desolation and Affliction? (Malcolm Muggeridge, Richard Rohr & Catharine von Schlegel)

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Stillness, Waiting on God

“Contrary to what might be expected, I look  back on experience that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained.” Malcolm Muggeridge

“What the saints and mystics say is that some event, struggle, relationship, or suffering in your life has to lead you to the edge of your own resources. There has to be something that you by yourself cannot understand, fix, control, change, or even begin to deal with. It is the raw experience of ‘I cannot do this.’ All you can do at this point is wait and ask and trust.” Richard Rohr

“Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

“Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away.”

Hymn lyrics by Catharine Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel, composer: Jean Sibelius (“Finlandia”)

“Be still, and know that I am God….” Psalm 46:10

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Is what Muggeridge and Rohr say believable to you? Can you think of ways your life been enhanced by affliction?
  • Can you trust God to be faithful in the future as he has been in the past? that “all now mysterious shall be bright at last?”
  • What is “taken away” from us creates a kind of spaciousness. Can you wait for God to fill that space, rather than attempting to fill it yourself?

Abba, I will still my soul. I will be still before you. I want to know what the waves and winds still know. I want to know in my deepest self that you are God.

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For More: Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: The Achilles Heel Of Evangelicalism (Ruth Haley Barton)

Posted on by under Silence, Solitude, Stillness

“…I believe silence is the most challenging, the most needed and the least experienced spiritual discipline among evangelical Christians today. It is much easier to talk about it and read about it than to actually become quiet. We are a very busy, wordy and heady faith tradition. Yet we are desperate to find ways to open ourselves to our God who is, in the end, beyond all of our human constructs and human agendas. With all of our emphasis on theology and Word, cognition and service–and as important as these are–we are starved for mystery, to know this God as One who is totally Other and to experience reverence in his presence. We are starved for intimacy, to see and feel and know God in the very cells of our being. We are starved for rest, to know God beyond what we can do for him. We are starved for quiet, to hear the sound of sheer silence that is the presence of God himself.”  Ruth Haley Barton

“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord,
for the Lord is about to pass by.’
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord,
but the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire,
but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire came [lit. “the sound of sheer silence”].
When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face
and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.”
I Kings 19:11-13

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Do you feel the need for silence? Have you thought about how practicing silence could be a beneficial “spiritual discipline?”
  • Is your faith tradition “very busy, wordy and heady?” Is it characterized by “theology and Word, cognition and service?” Are you starved for something more: for rest, quiet, intimacy?
  • Will the speed level and noise level of your life allow you to hear God if he comes to you in “sheer silence?” Are you willing to make some changes? to carve out some silent places?

Abba, help me as I seek out silence, to attend to you there in love, and receive there your love for me.

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 Thomas Merton expresses my heart for Daily Riches: “If I dare, in these few words, to ask you some direct and personal questions, it is because I address them as much to myself as to you. It is because I am still able to hope that a civil exchange of ideas can take place between two persons — that we have not yet reached the stage where we are all hermetically sealed, each one in the collective arrogance and despair of his own herd.” I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. (Psalm 90:14) . I appreciate your interest! – Bill