God in Between the Words
"The reason we are so afraid of silence and solitude is that in these spaces we confront our interior poverty. In prayer, we often participate with God through words, sentences, paragraphs composed with the desire to connect to the Creator of all things. Yet in a life of constant giving, our composed prayers seem parched from a deep dryness of self-emptying. To be silent, to be alone is the very act of being drawn into instead of being drawn from. The move from activity, that is to say from doing to being, is to allow the Well Spring of Life to fill all that must be deep for a life of giving. You can only give from what you have been given. Be still and let yourself be given." Scott Erickson
“There is no need to produce or perform or perfect—simply become a place for God." Ann Voskamp
“Solitude well practiced will break the power of busyness, haste, isolation, and loneliness. You will see that the world is not on your shoulders after all. You will find yourself, and God will find you in new ways. Silence also brings Sabbath to you. It completes solitude, for without it you cannot be alone. Far from being a mere absence, silence allows the reality of God to stand in the midst of your life." Dallas Willard
Yesterday, my friend Claudia shared with some of us about her experience with silence and prayer. She told the story of a breathtaking 21-mile hike in Glacier National Park. She and her husband had joined her brother-in-law in spreading the ashes of his only son, who drown seven years prior. “Sometimes there are no words,” she whispered to us concerning the co-mingling of beauty and grief. Both steal your breath and usher in silence. Among the snowfields and waterfalls, they softly set the ashes at a make-shift sanctuary.
When Claudia returned home, she couldn’t speak for a couple of weeks. Literally, no words would come. It was if she were temporarily dumbstruck by the experience. “And I’ve never had a problem with words!” she laughed as she told us about that time. Then one day, simply walking across the living room floor, something came to Claudia from God: I am in between the words.
I am in between the words.
(Sit with that for a minute 😳.)
“That moment began my interior journey,” Claudia says. And she invited us into our own journey to experience the God between the words.
Ruth Haley Barton says that silence and solitude are the most difficult of the spiritual practices because they require us to abandon all the scaffolding we have fabricated to protect and promote ourselves. Unkind judgments and propping ourselves up assault us when we get quiet. Lists and lies threaten to overwhelm us. Our thoughts jump like crazed monkeys in a tree swinging from branch to branch. Silence feels so futile.
And still, as Claudia learned, we somehow instinctively know that God is in between all those words. He is in the silence. He even generously offers us an avenue to find Him there: “Be still and know” (Psalm 46:10). It's sequential, though. (I'm sure you caught that.)
Be still first. And then know.
My friends and I started a week-long practice of being still, stretching to five minutes a day. Since our heart is a muscle, we’re working it out little by little, minute by minute. We’re using silence to make room for God’s presence.
Under the guidance of Claudia (and the free app from The Center for Contemplative Outreach), we long to be still and know the God between the words. Pray for us? Join us?
JUDY