Solitude day 2
Our 22 hours of solitude has gone from 7pm yesterday to 5pm today. Silent means no headphones, no ipods, no sign language, no passing notes, no contact with one another. We started in a circle and the last thing we said or heard was the Lord’s Prayer. Today, we will break the silence in the same way.
It has been so wonderful to not have any structure, any expectations, just free time to relax and commune with God. I went for a long walk in the woods, sat out by the lake and wrote letters, read my bible, and prayed. It was so good to just bask in his presence, to come before him with no agenda, no requests, no needs, just seeking Him for the great and awesome God He is.
As I was sitting by the lake, I saw a boat pull into a prime fishing spot and start to fish. The next time I looked up it had drifted a little, and I thought that their anchor wasn’t holding. The next time I looked, they had drifted about 2 football fields away from the spot they had started! As I continued to watch, the fisherman put down his pole, started the boat, and went back to the prime fishing spot – without pulling up an anchor! He had no anchor to hold him there. I watched him do this 3 different times!
We are like that boat sometimes, getting ourselves into a good relationship with God, or finding a good spot for ministry, but we do nothing to anchor ourselves there. Because we have no prayer life or we aren’t rooted in scripture, we drift away from God, or we loose sight of the purpose for our ministry. I am praying that we all remember to anchor ourselves securely in God and in His purposes for us.
Ok, the silence is broken! This is what happens to extroverts when you make them not talk for 22 hours!
(i will work on posting a video, but am not sure how yet - soon!)
It was so much fun to hear what the other people experienced on their day of silent solitude. A few comments were:
I heard God say this is exactly where I am supposed to be.
My day was productive and that productivity made me thankful for my abilities and all the letters I wrote made me thankful for all the people I have in my life that care about me. God is Good!
I slept for 18 of the 22 hours, but God used what was left.
I heard God say that I should never ever ever even try to be quiet for that long ever again.
I think I was looking too hard and missed what God was trying to say to me until the last hour.
Erin- to post the video, you COULD upload it to Youtube, and then there's a box called "embed" to the right of the video. You copy and paste that into your post- but you have to be in "edit HTML" mode- which is one of the tabs when you are typing- it's above the format menu. sounds too complex, but I suspect it won't be that tough when you try it.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the observations from people after the quiet time.