Silence . . .

Each week the connection group I am apart of studies a different spiritual discipline, this past week we focused our hearts and minds around understanding silence. Here is a post I wrote for our connection group's blog page.

According to Coach D, “Silence is abstaining from sound in order to open our spiritual ears and listen more closely to the voice of God. God seldom speaks loudly. He usually speaks in a ‘still small voice,’ often little more than an impression in our minds (see 1 Kings 19:12 KJV).”

The start of this week was exciting and different than most, I attended our annual spring Community Life Retreat. It was a time of focused growth in the areas of character and leadership. One of the best part of the retreat was not having a television, radio, and computer. As I reflected outside in nature on the retreat grounds, I thought about all the times I walk in to my apartment and turn on the television just for the noise or the amount of time I spend on my computer checking emails and blogs. I am not saying all this modern things evil or bad, but if they become the driving focus of our lives can we truly hear the voice of God?

Coach calls us to, "learn to displace those noisy thoughts by concentrating on one thing, perhaps a Scripture passage or a scene from the Bible." I read these words and my heart is moved to listen and sit in silence in order to open our lives up to God's heart to replace all the noise of one's life. The next time you sit down on the couch and start to turn on the television ask yourself the following questions:

How many hours each day is the television on?

When you are out to dinner or coffee, how time do you spend listening to your companions?

How has the past week led to a deeper dependence on God through your experience of Silence?

Set Apart: International Wesleyan Youth Convention

From December 28th through the 31st about 500+ students and youth leaders/pastors spent time in prayer at Set Apart Youth Convention. I had the opportunity to lend a hand to my good friends Jeremy, Andrea and Justin in the Prayer Room. The Prayer Room was setup with nine different stations, each one designed to help individuals or groups connect with God through experiential prayers. Each station provided people different ways of engaging in the presence of God, like the above definition of prayer there are more than just one style or method of prayer. Prayer is much larger and grander than simply kneeing at an altar with my hands folded and eyes closed. This prayer room came from a deeper understanding of prayer: to intercede with or make petition to God, conversation with God – in praise, thanksgiving, or intercession. Prayer is about the whole body, mind, soul, and strengthen of a person coming into the presence of God.

I want to focus on one of those nine stations, station two or “Reflecting.” It was designed to help people reflect on themselves from two different angles. First, how they see themselves and second on how God sees them. People are given a guide to assist them through the different prayer stations. The following is taken from the guide:

“Study yourself in the mirror for a moment. Ask God to help you see past the everyday things you notice about yourself, whether good or bad. Ask God to help you look deeper, until you catch a glimpse of the child of God that you already are, His purposeful creation. What do you look like when you can see yourself the way God sees you?”

Each day I wakeup and walk into my bathroom look into the mirror and think about how God sees me and how I see myself. I think about what God sees in me, things that I don’t see or don’t even know. Through prayer I gain new hope of what will be and what is unseen in the here and now.

What Community is Not?

My mind wonders a lot and I often find myself thinking what community is not and asking why are people not in community? John 4:4-30 tells us about a woman seeking community, love, and a shared life but all she found was pain and brokenness. Until Jesus comes! (Please READ JOHN 4:4-30)

Wikipedia says: “community usually refers to a group of people who interact and share certain things as a group, this article focuses on human communities, in which intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of adhesion.” I believe Wikipedia is on the right path, “Community affects the identity of the participants.”

However, it is lacking something, something deeper; take Debbie “a single woman in her late twenties. She has great leadership gifts and a promising career. Her commitment to her job has made her a rising star in her company. Senior management is beginning to notice her. However, working six days a week has also kept her from having a life outside of work. For the most part, Debbie does not get out much. There is just too much to do. When she is not working, she renovating her loft. Her parents are worried about her. The girl who once had several inseparable friends has drifted away from those relationships. “That’s the price of working for a Fortune 500 company,” she tells them. Besides, she is with people all the time. At work, at her gym, and at her church, people are everywhere. People surround Debbie. True, she does not really know any of them and they do not know her. This was fine, until recently. Doing life alone is taking its toll. Debbie is beginning to feel alone, even in crowds.” What is Debbie seeking? I believe it is authentic community, really focused on and around Jesus Christ.

Do you find yourself seeking authentic community?

What do you think authentic community is?