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Silence II ...

Wednesday, July 30, 2014. How do you get into some silence? Do you know this experience: you try to calm down, but it is difficult. Your thoughts and feelings do not just stop - they are difficult to control! What ways do you have to calm down?

Pull and Push …

I have just been talking to an old friend for a while. We had a long walk along the North Sea, along the beach, talking about current problems. Even when you are surrounded by the sky, by huge spaces, by flat sand and sand and sand for kilometers, it might be difficult to let go. Things which hurt us are still active in our mind and our emotions.

What is pushing us? What is pulling us, attracting us? There are many things which occupy our mind. Things can be an obstacle on our way to true silence. Things can be an obstacle on our way to talk to God in prayer and silence!

And again, I realized that we have the freedom to pray. We have the freedom to make this decision: I want to stand before the Lord and talk to him. When I turn to him, things change. When I address him, ask him for a moment of his time, and then start to sincerely pray … things change!

Not free of failure …

The important thing is not to be free of failure. Even when you are a dedicated follower of Jesus, you can make huge mistakes. Even if you are full of faith, you might not always choose the right path. As humans, we fail now and then - or even completely. But that should not hinder us to come to the Lord. In Christ Jesus, the door is open to come to him.

I find true silence only when I turn to the Lord. When I address him: Lord! One word might be enough. It is not that I could bring error free decisions. It is not that I would be particularly good - I am not! I am bound to the wrong things, with part of my life. I see this clearly, when I look at myself in his light. But still I can turn to him, and a silence of great strength and depth comes as if he would just calm the storm in my soul!

We cannot calm down our emotions. But the Lord can. He can give us silence, it is a present, it is his grace. He can calm us down. He can guide us. He knows how to put us onto the right track - a track which leads into his truth, his love, and into eternal life … Thank you, Lord! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts