silence, an overlooked discipline

WALKING WITH THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES can mean walking slower, noticing more, taking stock of what God brings across our path. It can mean expecting Him to bring good things; pieces that help us put the pieces together, a word of hope that is TIMELY. In these ways, the disciplines help shape the life of our soul. Silence is one of those over-looked, under-rated, mis-understood disciplines. And if you don't already love and practice SILENCE, let me invite you to do so.

My new book on the SEVEN SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES is an invitation to explore the difference it makes, day-to-day and then.... I believe... for the whole of our lives. Perhaps even into eternity, but that's a longer conversation; and this article is a short friendly invite into the simplicity, the calmness, the strength of practicing silence.

Here's AN EXCERPT on the DISCIPLINE OF SOULFUL SILENCE:

The silence is the backdrop against which our own, true voice can come to the fore and deliver its lines. Or rather, come to the fore and find there is no script. Life is lived in real time, and we are all originals. Silence is not a theatrical device or conversational prop. It is real. And it allows us to become more real as we actively listen longer to our own voice, and the dialogue between our heart and God’s heart than we do to secondary and tertiary ones that often have little to do with our own situation. The world, and the online world especially, are full of disconnected messages and ideas that have nothing to do with us. And yet, we take them in, unfiltered. We burn precious energy and often have nothing to show for it at day’s end. But whatever voices we’re taking in, they should speak a good word to us. They should bring life. Otherwise, the disappointments and disillusionments that pile up, might be more than we can handle.

Silence is so helpful in sorting all of this out, in filtering the good from the less-than.

It's impossible for posers to stand long in front of the mirror that is soulful silence.

If you are intrigued, if your life and work need more time for soulful silence, space to discern 'who's who' and 'what's what' and then to find the courage to act on that, check out my book. Each section has personal questions for you to respond to and to help make it your own. We are all walking with God in some way, either closely or far apart; if you desire to walk more closely, to be more intimate with the things that help make our soul-life strong, then check it out. Sit with the questions; in silence, and allow the Lord of your life come in a deeper way. Notice the way flowers grow, silently, after the fire. Notice how deeply HOPE is rooted in the stuff of this world, and allow silence to help draw it out.