Be Still and Know that I am God
I've been reading David C. Downing's book, Into the Region of Awe. In his chapter on C.S. Lewis' space trilogy, he brings attention to a quote from Lewis' Perelandra that I had completely forgotten:
In my own Christian walk, I've experienced the troublesome, erosive, and antagonistic nature of both inner chatter and external noise, but I've become much more cognizant of this over the past year because of a prayer retreat I participated in last May. At this retreat, we practiced being still and silent in the presence of God. Tucked away from television, radio, cell phones, and noise, I found that I could not silence my own inner chatter for more than 20 seconds or so. To-do lists, grocery lists, frets, worries, hopes, and dreams all kept crowding into my mind to drown out my inner silence. In the holiest of places, I could not shut down the chatter. (When you have a few minutes of silence today, I challenge you to try this yourself.)
How can I hear God's voice when I am so preoccupied with my own? How can I quietly enjoy his presence when I can't stop thinking for more than a few seconds?
I have discovered that I must seek out silence or create it by carving out times and places in my day that are devoted entirely to the Lord. I have to practice being still. I cannot allow my internal chatter and the world's noise to drown out God's whisper. He deserves better than for me to interrupt our communion together with a recitation of my grocery list or a reliving of my day. God deserves the reverence and intimacy that can only occur in silence. It is there that we can "Be still and know that [He is] God." (Psalm 46:10) It is only there that we can hear God's whisper. (I Kings 19)
In my efforts to practice silence and stillness, I have found three books especially helpful: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, and The Cloud of Unknowing (author unknown). However, I am convinced that practice is more important than any book, retreat, or advice. I must practice stillness in the presence of God.
Inner silence is for our race a difficult achievement. There is a chattering part of the mind which continues, until it is corrected, to chatter on even in the holiest places.And, if our own chattering is not enough to distract us, there is continuous noise all around us. Lewis emphasized the destructive power of noise in The Screwtape Letters and how the forces of Hell try to drown out the "melodies and silences of Heaven" with noise.
In my own Christian walk, I've experienced the troublesome, erosive, and antagonistic nature of both inner chatter and external noise, but I've become much more cognizant of this over the past year because of a prayer retreat I participated in last May. At this retreat, we practiced being still and silent in the presence of God. Tucked away from television, radio, cell phones, and noise, I found that I could not silence my own inner chatter for more than 20 seconds or so. To-do lists, grocery lists, frets, worries, hopes, and dreams all kept crowding into my mind to drown out my inner silence. In the holiest of places, I could not shut down the chatter. (When you have a few minutes of silence today, I challenge you to try this yourself.)
How can I hear God's voice when I am so preoccupied with my own? How can I quietly enjoy his presence when I can't stop thinking for more than a few seconds?
I have discovered that I must seek out silence or create it by carving out times and places in my day that are devoted entirely to the Lord. I have to practice being still. I cannot allow my internal chatter and the world's noise to drown out God's whisper. He deserves better than for me to interrupt our communion together with a recitation of my grocery list or a reliving of my day. God deserves the reverence and intimacy that can only occur in silence. It is there that we can "Be still and know that [He is] God." (Psalm 46:10) It is only there that we can hear God's whisper. (I Kings 19)
In my efforts to practice silence and stillness, I have found three books especially helpful: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, and The Cloud of Unknowing (author unknown). However, I am convinced that practice is more important than any book, retreat, or advice. I must practice stillness in the presence of God.
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