Enter the Silence

“Silence is the hard to reach place that takes us to places hard to reach without it.”

Loren Thornburg

For many of us there is not a shortage of busyness and noise. Those things are easy to come by and we are comfortable with them.  It’s the silence that is hard to find and often hard to sit in and remain there.  It doesn’t usually happen on it’s own.  We have to be intentional to make space fork it.  We have to schedule it in, close our door, and refuse to let distractions steal us away from the silence that we need.  For it is in silence that we hear truth.  It is in silence that we can take a step back and see what’s really going on around us and in us.  It is in silence that we remember what’s important.  Without silence we miss seeing, hearing and remembering.  And without those things we will get lost; lost in the busyness, lost in the noise, and lost in the chaos of life.   Reach for silence even when it’s hard.  It’s worth the reach.  

“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.  Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return.”

Lamentations 3:28-31 Message

It sounds so simple: When things get hard, go be quiet before God and enter the silence with Him.  Yet, it’s far from easy for me.  Somehow that is the last thing I want when life is heavy.  I want something else.  I want something to hear, something to hold, something I can see.  So I look for that in music, books, friends, TV, but it’s not there. Although God often uses all of those things in my life, when He is calling me to enter the silence they just can’t meet me there.   For in these times I leave those places, although thankful for the break from the heaviness, still searching.  Eventually when I find myself entering the silent spaces with my Faithful Creator I find hope.  It takes waiting, it takes wrestling, it takes faith, but it is there I am found.  I was lost in the noise until I entered the silence on which I hear God speak.  I see my God be faithful again.  It really wasn’t the worst like I thought it was, but it was the thing that showed me once again what is really true: God finds me in those places and never stops finding me.  Silence may be hard to find but it’s where we are found.

Space Between

“Your community is big when the space between you and others is small.”

Loren Thornburg

Today in church as someone sat in the once empty and not so big chair next to me I was aware of how our culture, myself included likes our space.  Most of us have an idea of how close is too close and we adhere to that.  When someone enters into that personal space bubble we become uncomfortable.  The problem is that this translates over to our hearts.  You see we were made for connection, intimacy and community.  In order for these to function as we need and as they were intended requires giving up the space that we are comfortable with.  It demands we let people into that space, giving up our rights to comfort and inviting us into community.  Give up the space between and let community in.  You need it and it needs you.  

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
Hebrews 10:25 NLT

Especially now we need community.  It wasn’t just then, but it’s us too.  They weren’t the only ones that needed to be reminded of its importance.  It’s easy to neglect meeting together.  It’s easy to neglect letting people into our lives and going deep into theirs.  Yet, we need it and even more we are called to it, we are commanded to it.  God made you for it.   He knows the great encouragement you have to offer and others have to offer you.  He knows you need it.  This means letting down our walls.  This means giving up the space that makes us feel safe and comfortable.  This means letting God have His way with the space He has given us. So enter in and let God have His way with your space.  

Escorted by Pain

“Sometimes pain escorts us to places we would never have gone on our own.”

Loren Thornburg

Pain is painful.  You can’t ignore it.  It begs for your attention and forces you to attend to it.  Never have I wished for pain, yet I am reminded of the healing that comes because it was painful.  I would have missed the healing if pain had not escorted me there.  I would have ignored it and pretended that it wasn’t there if it hadn’t begged for my attention.  We see this example in our physical bodies.  The pain of a cut, broken bone or other ailment reminds us to clean it so that we will find healing from it. Our hearts are no different.  Pain reveals the parts of your heart that you don’t see.  Sometimes you don’t even know it’s there until the pain escorts you there.  Once you have been taken there you can either let it escort you to healing or choose to look the other way.  The catch is that if you don’t look at it now it will surface again later.  It will beg for your attention until it finds healing.  Your heart longs for healing.  Let pain escort you there.  

“Reveal your light and your faithfulness! They will lead me, they will escort me back to your holy hill, and to the place where you live.”

Psalm 43:3

In this psalm we see the longing of a troubled soul for God.  This is what pain does.  It reveals our deepest longing for our God.  We long for relationship and intimacy with Him for this is what we were created for.  In the pain our cry is for Him to come meet us in that place that we could see His light in that darkness and His faithfulness in what feels abandoned.  We need an escort and He is the only one that can do that.  This is the gospel.  God gave us Jesus, His son so that we could be escorted into intimacy with our Father, our God.  He wants all of us and is willing to allow us pain to get us.  He is the only one that can escort us from pain to the healing of our deepest pain and desire.  He is the only one that knows our pain, knows how to meet us there, and knows how to best lead us through that place.  He sees our pain and wants to accompany us to healing.  Let Him take you by the hand even now, even here.  He is your best escort.  

Guard the Goods

“You have been given much that is good.  Guard it well.”

Loren Thornburg

We go to great lengths to guard that which is worth much to us.  We put our money in banks, our valuables in safes, and our sentimental items in a special spot.  Yet, what do we do with the goods we have been given that aren’t of physical worth?  How are we guarding our relationships, the truth we’ve learned, and the things we are thankful for?  Guard means to protect, preserve and keep watch.  It’s easy to lose sight of the goods that don’t have a monetary value, but we can’t afford to.  Relationships, truth, and all we have to be thankful for are the very things that give us life.  These are the very things that will keep you from that which steals life.  You have been given many good things.  Keep close watch over them.  If you don’t guard your goods, you will lose them and the life that they bring.  Guard what’s good and keep close what’s true.  

“Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.”

2 Timothy 1:14 Amplified

This isn’t a recommendation it is a necessity.  We must guard and keep with the greatest care the truth God has been given to us.  They are of great worth.  The truth of the Bible, the things God has revealed, the words He has spoken to our hearts, those things are of great value.  They are precious and they have been entrusted to you, so guard them well.  Keep close watch over those things.  This means reminding ourselves of them often and letting them soak into our hearts.  It means having people around you who can help bring these things back  into your sight.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you for there is a great spiritual battle for these things.  It looks different for different people at different times. What does it look like for you to guard with the greatest care the goods God has given you?  

Beyond Disappointment

“Hope is often hiding beyond the disappointment."

Loren Thornburg

This time of the year is fun when many gather around to share the Olympic experience.  I love how sports can unite us.  Yet, the hard part is that not everyone wins.  That is the excitement of winning and yet the great disappointment of losing.  It is so hard to watch and see the athletes watch as their dreams fade away.  They’ve spent thousands of hours working towards what comes down to a moment, only for many to come up short.  We’ve all been there in that moment having spent much time in hopes of something that seems to only bring disappointment.  It’s a part of life for those who are willing to risk.  It’s worth it, not only for the joy of accomplishment, but also the joy of the journey to get there with the celebrations and purpose along the way.  Yet, what do you do with that disappointment.  It can feel so heavy at times.  We are offered so many places to take that disappointment, but they all subside and leave us only momentarily eased.  They all do, except for one and that is HOPE.  So, in the face of disappointment, when dreams seem faded away,  risk again against the odds, hope again against feared defeat.  It’s the only way to know what joy you might find hiding...beyond the disappointment.

“My help and glory are in God--granite-strength and safe-harbor-God--So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him.  God is safe place to be.”

Psalm 62:7-8 Message

God is very familiar with disappointment, yours included.  He is not asking you not to have it, but to bring it to Him.  Yet, that doesn’t come without risks.  Risking that He really is good, risking that He will be careful with it and with us, risking that we really can trust Him with them.  These things are true, but often we don’t take that risk.  Instead we take our struggles to anything else that will ease the pain only to find that it is once again true: God is our only help that is strong, safe and trustworthy.  We can trust Him with our disappointment and take it to Him knowing He is careful with it and knows how to turn it into joy.  That’s our God!  That’s our Hope!