A Lenten Quieting

Does your heart long for blue skies

and

simplicity?

Is there a clutter

weighing

on

your mind?

It seems that everywhere I turn lately, people are lamenting over the stress and disruption ruling our days. If we aren't busy at work, then we are busy at leisure. If we aren't overwhelmed with finances, then we are overwhelmed with business choices. We have become a people named by Hurry and labeled by Over-Full.

Is this state of mind

a place where we are meant to dwell?

When the pace of my life came to a sudden, grinding halt a few years ago, because of my chronic illness diagnosis, I found myself grieving the busy way of life I was accustomed to living. I felt like the rest of the world was passing me by. But as I gradually came to an acceptance of the SLOW that would mark my days, and the PACE that I needed to maintain in order to have even a small amount of energy, I found that I didn't miss all of the busyness quite as much as I thought I would.

But, like an underlying current, I didn't see

the busyness still clinging to me.

My mind had never slowed

and my thoughts still flowed,

Ever rushing onward

Ever flooding full.

As this year began, and I searched my heart for a word, a direction given from the Lord, He spoke a word that I thought I had already mastered.

"Stillness" 

He said,

"Learn what it means to 

be still with Me."

Apparently, I had not mastered the art of stillness. For even though my body had slowed, my mind had not. It was never more clear to me how far I had to go, than when I first sat down to practice the Spiritual Discipline of Centering/Silent Prayer. One of my dear blogging friends, Joy Lenton, who blogs at: Words of Joy, spoke about an app for your phone that could help you begin the process of learning to sit in God's Presence for Silent/Centering Prayer. The app is offered through the resources at Contemplative Outreach. (You can check out their website for a wealth of information.) So, I excitedly downloaded the app, and read through some of their information.  

Yes! Of course I want more communion with God! Isn't this where I spend most of my prayer time anyway?

I know how to listen to God, so I will love to practice

being silent in His Presence.

What I discovered was that I loved to hear myself talk. 

I loved to ask God questions. I loved to look into His Word and listen to what He might say there. I loved to pray for my friends. I loved to pursue thought processes with the Lord as my guide.

But just to sit with Him in silence?

The minutes ticked by in agony that first day. This was most definitely something that did not come easily for me.  But as the days passed, and I learned to give myself grace for my errant thoughts, continuously pulling them back to the name of Jesus, I began to notice the Presence of Jesus there with me in a way I had not known before.  Quiet, hovering, and all-consuming, this was the God who would not be hurried, and would not be directed by my own terms or worries. 

Here was a LOVE

where peace began.

Here was a CALM

 where storms were stilled.

And I felt a nudging to walk with Jesus through these days in a new stillness, to learn more from HIS heart about peace.

Shortly after I began this process, a poetic stirring began in me that you may have been reading these past few weeks.  As my heart has hungered for words that would still my racing thoughts, poetry has met a deep longing planted years ago in my soul.   Looking through old recipes that had belonged to my Mother, I came across a spiral-bound notebook that flooded my mind with memories. I was suddenly a child again, watching my Mother cut poems out of magazines and newsletters, and pasting them into her journal.  But it was this page that stopped me in my tracks that day:

     

  

Whether the doodles

were made by my

childish hand,

or the hands of another,

the message was clear:

this longing for

STILLNESS

runs deep in my veins. 

   

Do you have a longing for the busy

to be stilled?

Is your mind tired of the

constant clutter?

Join me this month here,
on Thursdays, 

as we step closer to Easter,

and 

face the call towards Lent,

where we will seek to lay down our clutter

and take up His Communion.

Will you join me

as I turn towards Him
and learn more

of the call

to be still with Him?

 

"This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

 'In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength'"
  Isaiah 30:15 NIV

If you are looking for a great Devotional during these days leading up to Easter, my blogging friend, Susan Shipe, who writes at: Hope, Heart, Home, has written a beautiful 40 day walk through this season. Find it at Amazon, here.

  
I am linking this week with:
Debbie Kitterman #TuneInThursday 

Day 31: Letting Go so that We Can Listen

Wow! God has helped us to travel all the way to

DAY 31

in this #31Days of Listening with Chronic Illness!


 Along the way, we've listened to find peace,

to find rest,

to hear the voices of those around us,

and to seek to hear our Lord's voice more clearly.


 I've been surprised at the remembering

that God has stirred up,

at the ways He spoke in the past,

and showed us HIS story

in the midst of my own.


 But at the end of this month,

I've heard Him speaking

to me, a nudging

that has continued from the very beginning

of these travels.


 To truly hear HIS voice,

there is only one way

that opens my heart

to the crystal-clear words

that HE wants to bring:

I must continue to let go of the plans

and the ways that I set up for myself

along the road of this life.

Only in resting myself, daily,

in the HOPE of His Care,

and the Plans of HIS heart,

will I hear the

NEW,

and see the BEAUTY

that HE wants to bring now to this Season.

 

  Isaiah 30:15 The Message  "God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: 'Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me'"

Have you heard Him calling to you this month?

In the letting go of your own efforts,

Jesus will bring you salvation.

And in the settling down into HIM,

you will find new strength.

My heart rises up with you as we pray

that our Lord

will help us 

in this journey 

of learning

to let go

and listen to Him.

I have been so honored to have you join me this month!

To say thank you for being so faithful,

I'm partnering with Cindee Snider Re,

for a give-away of her great book

Discovering Hope: Beginning the Journey Toward Hope in Chronic Illness

Anyone who leaves a comment this week on my blog

will automatically be entered to win 1 of 2 books

that I'll be sending out!

I will announce the winner this coming weekend,

November 6.

One more time,

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