There is another essential aspect of Christianity: the interior, the silent, the contemplative, in which hidden wisdom is more important than practical organizational science, and in which love replaces the will to get visible results.
Thomas Merton, Love and Living, Naomi Burton Stone and Brother Patrick Hart, eds. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975 p. 202
This, if you will pray for me, is where I need to be over the next few days. In a recent article, Bayless Conley wrote:
If God confirms the most important decision [our conversion] we’ll ever make in life by the inward witness of the Spirit, why should we look for some outward sign to give us direction when we’re in a crisis? When you look for the spectacular, you’re liable to miss the supernatural that is right in front of you all along.
Or as Paul says (Romans 8.16): “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.”
What I need is the stillness, the openness (not easy in a crisis of the heart), to hear God’s authentic voice, to hear the secret patterns of the Spirit within all that I am; that same Spirit that led Paul to write (Romans 8.28), “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
I must listen, watch, with all my attention on God, and not on myself or on what I may hope or fear for my path from here, deeper into God’s territory, into the mercy of Christ.
4 comments:
Oh Mike - my heart lept when I saw a post from you. I have been holding you in prayer and will continue to do so.
As will we, Mike.
Praying this for you now.
Will be keeping you in my prayers, Mike. As we approach and reach Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit be with you and guide you in prayer, enlighten and soothe your heart, and be your great Comforter.
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