{{2014_08_19_t1.jpg}} {{2014_08_19_t2.jpg}} {{2014_08_19_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2014_08_19|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_vi|| Topics Collection vi ]] ======Silence VIII - Proper Input ...====== Tuesday, Aug 19, 2014. Sometimes silent times can be good to sort yourself. Perhaps you feel that your life needs a makeover. Or you feel that things cannot stay as they are. Then, silence can be great to get to a sound and sustainable attitude - but it should be prepared by some proper input. Silence itself will not be able to guide you, if you have not prepared it by the right type of reading or conversations. What type of input is good and helpful? {{2014_08_19.jpg }} **The right type of input ...** In my private silent time I have searched this input this morning. I took a bible search function and looked up several keywords. This led me to several bible passages in the New Testament, passages where Jesus, John the Baptist and the Apostles tell their fellow believers what to do and how to set up their life. For example, in Galatians, we find the following advice: 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (Gal 5, 13-15) The New Testament gives us far reaching advice on how to guide and sort our social interaction and our relationships. We should be honest to each other. We should be full of peace. And we should support each other. The New Testament formulates strong demands on how to take care of the weak and the needy! And it formulates this far reaching command: love your neighbor as yourself! There are not many deeper and more far reaching commands you could imagine ... {{ 2014_08_19_2.jpg}} **Struggle ...** > Perhaps you have heard this advice a lot of times now. You know the advice to love your neighbor, but at the same time you realize that it is difficult to love your neighbor as long as there are severe conflicts open - and as long as you find yourself caught in your personal reaction patterns, which demotivate you and do not support a supportive and peaceful attitude. One part of living in peace is to learn to bear and stand in conflicts. You cannot prevent others from attacking you or working against you. If you cannot stand conflicts, it will be difficult to work towards peace. You will have to learn to live with difficult situations and work on improving them at the same time. Look at Jesus: he has even been nailed to the cross by the people he came to save. He showed an example of someone who would not give up what is right, who would work for those who are generating a lot of pain for him, and who would bring a deep peace through his behaviour and his fate. Jesus gives us a good, even a perfect example of how to live. It might not be our personal path to go to the cross, but we are called to bear our own cross - and to be tools of peace. (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_vi|... more texts]]