Deafening Silence...

The common answer to God's answers to prayer are Yes, No, and Not yet. We seem to be satisfied with the tidy simplicity of this true but yet incomplete statement. We are all familiar with the fourth response, silence from God. Often the silence gets placed in the the "Not Yet" category, but that leaves out this key process- souls seem to be forged at times. Heat, pressure and pounding soften and form the hard spots of our souls. The instrument that has the most effect on my soul is silence. It's like you're being haunted by a quiet pain... a relentless unrest that makes us frustrated and demand, beg or cry to know why? Why won't you speak? It builds and creates a tension that causes us to finally look at ourselves and wonder if that silence is intended to silence me, making me ready. That leads us to a place where we finally break and ask the question that changes everything... What if my perceptions, behaviors and ideas just need to go, God, so I can hear you? Silence is heavy, deafening until finally... the noise goes away and we hear, hear His whisper, His quiet direction that is so, very easily missed unless our struggle makes us desperately sensitive.

I (meaning we) often have this problem of defining our intimacy with God by results. It's as if the milestones and goals that we set make us holy instead of His presence in our lives defining our spiritual life; and life as a whole. The first things to listen for in silence is truly the false perceptions and standards that we... well, use to keep us from doing the real work, obeying Him. In my experience, I can't hear because I won't listen.

Shalom