What are you doing for Lent? During this period of the liturgical year we are invited to act in ways that deepen our faith and relationship with God. Prayer, fasting, sacrificial giving, and acts of mercy are some practices that come to mind.
Prayer is meant to be a conversation with God and the acronym ACTS is an easy reminder to recall various elements of prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. All of these require action on our part, in other words, talking to God. But what about listening? How many times have we been in a conversation with someone and at some point realized that we were not really listening? Are our conversations with God so filled with talking in our head that we rarely hear or notice God speaking to us?
In the book My Grandfather's Blessings, author Rachel Naomi Remen recalls a woman who related an experience where, while doing housework, not thinking about anything much in particular, she had witnessed a connection between various random events in her lifetime coming together taking a direction that she had never noticed before. At the same time the woman felt deeply that what was true of her life was also true of life in general. Standing at her kitchen sink, she felt "a steady unseen force, like a wind" and "knew that, despite external appearances, life could be trusted, and she began to weep with joy."
Remen states that sometimes we can just know things that we can never understand, and I believe that to be true. The Psalmist reminds us that God is our refuge, ever present and waiting for us to listen. Are you listening? Be still and know.
God, we give thanks for your spirit voice that speaks to us at unexpected times. Open our hearts for discernment, and calm our minds so that we may have ears to hear. Amen.
Sheila Roebke
No comments:
Post a Comment