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Wisdom Story
A disciple goes to his Spiritual Teacher.
The disciple asks, "Teacher, how may I find God?"
The Teacher replies, "Would you please just be quiet?!"
*Story by Brian K. Wilcox
Wisdom Quote
Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
*Henry David Thoreau (b. 1817)
You have created us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until finding rest in You.
*St. Augustine (b. 500 BCE)
All men's miseries result from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
*Blaise Pascal (b. 1663)
Contemplative Musings
Imagine that you have a radio. You have that radio on. A number of stations are coming through. You are trying to listen to all the stations at once; so, you find yourself, really, moving from one to the other in haste. While you are listening to one station, you are thinking of the next station. While you are listening to one station, you think about the last station. You do that, day after day, month after month, and year after year. Would you call that sanity? Or insanity?
Now, imagine, someone comes to you and says there is a better way to listen to the radio, and a more efficient way. "What, you mean I can let go of this jumping from station to station?" Yes. Would that discovery relieve you? Obviously.
Then, why do we ignore the greatest spiritual teachers? These men and women have consistently said this: Noise is a horrible master, and haste kills love of Life. They teach that we cannot even have intimacy with life or God, or ourselves, unless we grow a relationship with inner solitude, faithful living in the moment, and openness to the Sacrament of Grace in all things.
Our addiction to unquiet is resistance to quiet. I do not simply speak of an outer quietness; we can never escape outer noise. I speak, principally, of inner quiet. That quiet has within itself, indeed is, an inner sanctuary of presence, a faithful abiding in the atmosphere of Graceful Spirit: mysterious and enlivening. Here we meet God, to meet God everywhere else.
How can I truly have intimacy ~ not just exist as one alongside the other ~ , truly know ~ not just know about ~ , deeply love ~ not just like or tolerate ~ ... without so knowing my own inner quiet that I can enter and respect the inner quiet at the Center of the other?
Our culture is a culture of desperation. Desperation is from a Latin "without hope." This is related to the word "speed." How telling that desperation, the condition of living hopelessly, is related to speed.
This raised the question, "Is our quest for incessant noise, for speed, for evasion of silence and quietness ~ inner and outer ~ the beguiling face of our own felt hopelessness, despair, and unfaith in the Good of Life?" Is this a violence that impairs our relationship with ourselves, others, and God, and contributes to the pervasive violence in our society?
If so, this is a spiritual issue, not only a social condition. And the good of society and the person, as well as the Church, demands an intelligent addressing of the essentially ~ not mere need ~ of quiet and solitude to a balanced and harmonious life and peaceful relationships.
If so, I must surrender the false security of trying to listen to so many channels at once. I must demand my God-endowed right and, also, responsibility to honor the Silence where God loves me eternally in enlivening intimacy and sweet delight. I must not listen to the pragmatic, driven voices that say that diligence and personal worth are all about the works I do. I must not bow to the tyranny of activism, even church activism, activism that keeps chasing its own rushing tail or trying to gather the wind in hasty arms. I must be diligent to live into and from the Church of the Heart, the Living Christ. If even my service in the name of God is another expression of desperate, unquiet living, then, what have I really offered others but more of desperation and unquiet?
Possibly the greatest temptation of a church seeking renewal is to create more programs and meetings to continue the futile and desperate chasing of the windy tail that leads us farther into the spiritual sterility of desperation. For even in our doing good, we can be led farther from God, from Whom our good truly is meant to arise and bless the world in Christ.
If the unquiet lead our churches and church denominations, where are we leading others? To Christ, or to more haste ~ now a desperate chasing of the future and its "religious" or "spiritual" goods in the name of God ~ a religious haste ~ and with the subtle claim that such desperation is obeying God?
And what is Christian spirituality if it is the rushing addition of one spiritual practice onto another, one workshop to another, one book to another, ..., thereby, avoiding the efficacy of any one means of grace by thinking the next or more will somehow be better than the holy poverty and genuine intimacy of one time-proven practice? The self focused on self, what St. Paul called flesh, will gladly add spiritual busyness to a busy agenda, in its avoidance of surrendering its life to the Cross of Christ.
And, then, how can we truly listen to God speaking within, if we cannot stop to listen and cannot be quiet to hear? How shall I ever hear what matters most if I cannot close my ears and mind to what matters least? Is not flight from quiet a fleeing of God ~ of True Life, of Intimate Love, of Joyful Being, and of Peaceful Gratitude?
Suggested Exercise
Sit alone for ten minutes. Get in a comfortable sitting posture, with hands folded in your lap; or lie down with hands folded on your chest, stomach, or resting beside you. Close eyes. Say a prayer, like, "Christ, I am here just to enjoy being with You." Breathe naturally. Feel whatever sensations arise bodily. Keep smiling. Listen deeply to sounds. Keep smiling. Resist nothing that arises, cling to nothing that arises. Keep smiling. End the time with a simple, heart-felt, smiling "Thank you" or with the Lord's Prayer, or another prayer of your choice.
Brian is available to respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Director, his speaking, doing classes, workshops, or retreats for churches or other spiritual groups.
For submission of replies, see below:
*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, and their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, in Clearwater and Punta Gorda, Florida. He is a United Methodist pastor and vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
*All quotes are in the public domain.
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