Enter the Silence

I have been meditating on these verses from Lamentations 3 in The Message bible quite a bit lately.

When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst.

I’ve been thinking especially about the phrase “Enter the silence”. I find that so hard to do. Even if the house is quiet my mind isn’t. It is always running from one thing to another, an assignment to finish, a house to run, meals to be ready at a certain time cos people have to be out early, remembering what it was I was asked to organise, thinking up ideas for Christmas presents, suddenly remembering that I am supposed to bring a plate to a meeting, quick prayers as people and their needs come to mind, another item that needs to be added to the shopping list and so on……. And sometimes I feel that I have short changed God. He is the most important person in my life but there are times when I feel I have squeezed in time alone with Him, rather than deliberately setting aside time to spend with Him and prioritising that time to the top of my list.

The times when as part of my conversations with God I stop talking and listen for what he needs to say to me are uplifting and energy renewing and I need to do this more often.

Even today at church as I sat looking at the painting of Mary I realised that for it to mean anything to me I had to “Enter the silence”. The thoughts that were swirling through my head, even as I was listening to what was being said, needed to drop away so that there was silence and stillness and I could wonder anew at the miracle of Christ’s birth and what that means for me. It was a precious moment in a busy weekend !