Learning to Listen
As part of my current spiritual disciplines I am reading April Yamasaki’s book Sacred Pauses. I am thoroughly enjoying her book which has many similar themes to my own Return to Our Senses. This morning’s reading was her chapter Becoming Quiet, in which she talks about the gift of silence a great theme to contemplate on as we approach Lent.
In Scripture and in our own personal experience, we know that silence can actually communicate a lot. Sitting silently holding the hand of someone who is dying can communicate comfort. Standing in silence after a long hike up a mountain may say something about the breathtaking effort it took to get there as well as about the breathtaking beauty of the 360-degree view. (40)
She goes on to explain that there is no place so silence that it is completely without sound. In silence we are able to listen beyond everyday sounds for God. This was the phrase that really attracted my attention this morning. What are the sounds beyond the everyday noises that are the sounds of God? Once we have stilled the distractions of busyness, conversation, music and traffic what remains? These in some ways are the sounds of God.
The sound of breathing which is the breath of God passing into and out of our bodies filling us with life and love and energy.
The sound of our heartbeat pumping the life blood of Christ into every cell and fibre of our being, renewing, restoring and refreshing our bodies so that we can do and be all that God intends.
Even the sound of those little unconscious movements of hands and feet, of muscles flexing and tendons stretching, that remind me I am alive, a miracle of God’s creativity and expression.
These this morning are the sounds of God for me. The sounds that shout aloud in the place of sheer silence reminding me that God will never leave nor forsake me.
What are the sounds of God for you this morning?
5 comments
Christine, looks like a beautiful spot to stop and listen to God!
Dear Christine, Thank you for your kind words and lovely post. I look forward to savoring your new book!
Thanks April I am thoroughly enjoying yours.
Hello from beautiful Arkansas on a clear winter day, dear Christine. Your gentle meditations are helpful to me. Many thanks. So many through the ages have spoken and written of “Holy Silence”, and, for me, the gentle state of silence is an essential tool in coming closer to God. So often to my monkey mind, as the hurried swirl of the world catches me up in it, the biblical verse breaks through “Be still and know that I am God.”
Thanks Stephan. I think we all need constant reminders of the psalmists words. It is so hard to find stillness and silence in our world today