Preparing for Wonder

                                                                                              Psalm 131:2

 This little creature

quivers and groans

as she tries to please her people.

"Place!" is the command

And she runs to her spot

All noiseless and still. 


Oh, but if you only knew! This little Grandpuppy of mine is anything BUT still! She is a force of nature bursting with energy. Chasing her human-boy-sibling, and guarding the home, there's never a moment for rest. But offer a treat, and call the word, "Place!" and all else around her dims. Her focus is keen and alert, quietly waiting.
  

Ahh, the lessons I could learn! 

In the middle of my quest to learn more about Heart-Stillness, I have been part of an Online Devotional Study on the book of Luke, led by Ifeoma Samuel, who blogs at: Purposeful and Meaningful.  Last week my thoughts were stirred within me as we read the Christmas Story in Luke 1 and 2 -- not your usual readings during Lent, the time of preparation before Easter! The story of Zechariah, and his questioning of the angel's promise, followed by his time of silence until his own son, John, was born, struck a chord within me.

And then just this week, my readings led me to another great Biblical blogger, Joanne Viola, and her site:  Joanne Viola, Days and Thoughts, where she wrote more beautiful thoughts about the waiting time required by Zechariah. As I typed out my response to her blog, I heard the Lord say "pay attention to what you are writing."

Has that ever happened to you? In the middle of your own writing, or speaking, have you heard the Lord say,

"Just listen to yourself!"

And there were my words, the cursor flashing before me: "I’ve often wondered if God used that time of silence in Zechariah’s life to grow wonder & awe in his heart?"  

. . . 

In these days of my own stillness and silence, is God perhaps wanting to grow something similar in me? I have sensed a longing for more awe, for more child-like wonder in my heart over many years, throughout many seasons in my life.  


Lifting up that longing for wonder to the Lord, I would spend several days trying desperately to keep my eyes open for that wonder.  Hunting and digging, as for buried treasure, I searched out those nuggets in my days that seemed to speak of awe or wonder.  But invariably, the busyness of life returned. Days became months, and the hunt for treasure took a backseat to duties and chores and the need of the moment.

So what have I been missing? 

How could a heart filled with such 

deep longing for wonder 

become so numb and so quick to move on?

Is it possible that the very lifestyle

I have now been given

could become a precursor

to AWE?

Is it possible that Zechariah's curse of silence

was actually given

to make way for a newness of heart--

a heart ready to receive

WONDER?

So I searched the Scriptures to find what kind of basis is  there for these questions of mine, and what kind of path is laid out for this journey I feel led to follow.

  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.  

Lamentations 3:25-26 NASB     

 

Only in a posture of waiting can my heart truly understand the salvation that has been won for me. This time of Lent, of laying down my own selfishness, is the perfect time to be still and watch for the Beauty that Jesus accomplished when He laid down His own life for mine. 

As my thoughts are stilled, 

as my heart seeks its "place" before Him,

will my ears become

ready?

Can I wait, quietly with Him,

to watch for

His Salvation

even here, even now?

Can I hear the angel's words

about Zechariah's son,

John, the one who would

 
"make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Luke 1:17 

Yes, Lord, still our hearts, 

and prepare us

for your salvation. 


May you be blessed by this Messianic offering of worship:

  


I am linking today with:
Debbie Kitterman, #TuneInThursday 

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