When walking through an airport recently, I counted the
number of people who were talking or listening on a cell phone. They were by far
in the majority. As I do my daily walk I notice most people have something in
their ear as they walk or run. Even walking on the beach with the glorious sound
of the sea, people are plugged in to something else!
Is the world so raucous and noisy we need to tune it out? Are we so addicted to having some sound coming in all the time that silence is scary? (As an educator I wonder what all this loud music is doing to young brainwaves, but that’s another column.) Quiet is hard to find!
I am trying to spend some time each day in centering prayer. Just a few weeks of practice has made me look forward to the experience. Nothing earth shaking has occurred but my body has a different energy and it feels more open. I want to listen to my heart’s sound. God’s call to me can come in this quiet as I allow it. Maybe one of the ways we can help heal our broken world is through a willingness to be quiet and listen.
Disturbing Discoveries
Robert McAfee Brown in his little book Creative Dislocation, The Movement of Grace, suggests these gifts of disturbing discoveries that profoundly produce good changes in our lives. Listen.
1. First disturbing discovery: Who we listen to determines what we hear. 2 Second disturbing discovery: Where we stand determines what we see. 3. Third disturbing discovery: What we do determines who we are,(we are defined not by rhetoric but by deeds). 4. Fourth disturbing discovery: When we have made three disturbing discoveries, everything is up for grabs!
Even if this is only partially true, it needs our attention and consideration. What am I missing in the world because I have not listened or looked and am afraid of change?
Uniquely Yours?
Rowan Williams, perhaps the most important Protestant theologian in the world is also one of the best. He is a prolific writer. In his book Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another, Williams tells his wide eyed confirmands that they are called to do something no one else in the body of Christ can do! A sound like that may make you take off the headphones and listen!
I do believe that God has a call for each of us in God’s world. It probably begins with our own heart sound and fits our own interests and gifts. I heard Mother Theresa say – in response to the question, what can we do to make the world better – “Just begin to smile at each other.”
I can smile and talk to any child. So wherever I am, at malls, at church, the grocery store, I do this. I smile at others. The more each of us gets the message that we are special and valuable the easier it is to believe there is something for us to do in the world.
In our quest for God, we think too much, reflect too much, talk too much. Even when we look at the dance we call creation, we are all the time thinking, talking (to ourselves and each other), reflecting, analyzing, philosophizing. Words. Noise.
Be silent and contemplate the dance. Just look a star, a flower, a fading leaf, a bird, a stone – any fragment of the dance will do. And hopefully, it won’t be long before you see the Dancer. (Anthony de Mello)
Questions for Discussion
• Who do you listen to?
• What do you see needs help?
• What can you do?
Nancy Boyle is a relational Bible teacher and member of the Elder Council of Faith At Work.