Friends, it was so good to be with you last night at The Practice. It has been amazing to see each of you lean into this journey of learning to swim with God’s Rhythms of Grace towards the restoration and redemption of all things. Thank you for your courage, and thank you for your desire to face into God’s invitation together.
Our gathering began with the familiar words, Please speak, Your servant is listening, and in many ways these words are a beautiful picture of what we want to take place through practicing a rhythm of silence. It is in silence that we learn to listen, and it is in silence that God speaks to us, his servants.
One of my favorite parts of our opening liturgy last night, was the time we spent in prayer for our enemies. Kellye Fabian led us through three movements of prayer for a global enemy (a world leader or group that seeks to do us harm), a local enemy (a politician or public figure with whom you disagree) and a personal enemy (someone who has hurt you deeply). In between each time of prayer we sang the words,
Your love is everywhere
Your love is everywhere
Open me, open me.
It was beautiful to bring our enemies before God, to pray for them, to release them to Him and then sit in the tension of his love in the midst of brokenness. Rather than hide my heart and my hurt from God, it was freeing to be real in his presence, to acknowledge my enemy, and to seek peace by praying for their healing and redemption.
Of course the main joy of last night was getting to hear from our fellow Practitioner Jason Feffer, as he shared his deep passion for practicing a rhythm of silence. You can listen to Jason’s message and our practice of silence through subscribing to our podcast or here below.
I was struck most in Jason’s message, by his thoughts on our ‘inner noise.’ Not only are we battling with the external noise of this life and all that entails, but for so many of us, the inner noise that grows loud as we seek out silence can be the hardest part of this discipline. I so loved his encouragement to keep trying, to realize that silence is a practice and a discipline, and that it is only through practicing it and through being disciplined to keep trying it, that we can invite God to speak and calm that inner noise.
Jason then led our tribe into ten whole minutes of silence as a community. I don’t know about you, but ten minutes is not the norm for me! I immediately felt the inner noise of my mind try to snatch my concentration in many directions, yet as the time went by, I slowly settled into the rhythm and felt present with God.
What about you? How was that time of silence? Were you discouraged? Did it fly by? Are you excited or nervous to try it again?
No matter how it went for you – lets keep trying friends. Lets keep pressing into the invitation to silence. I believe God wants to meet us in that space, if only to simply be with us. I believe that this practice can rewire our lives and strip away the noise for our good and for God’s glory.
If you’re interested to learn more about silence, Jason has a wonderful website full of his writing and resources called www.beingdisciples.com – please check it out for free resources and for more helpful next steps as we learn to swim together.
Finally, Kellye closed our time with this beautiful benediction, I hope these words carry with you into your life as you go about your week:
May you hear the invitation of Jesus anew or again: Follow Me.
May God grow roots of attentiveness deep in your soul.
May you have the courage to enter silence and find respite from the external and the internal noise.
And may you discover God’s deep, abiding love for you there.
It is my prayer for you all that you would make time this week to be silent with the Lord. Create 10 minutes of space to be in His presence, and may the cry of your heart be:
Please speak, your servant is listening.