Returned

So I am back from the Shalem Regional Event. For those of you who are not familiar with Shalem, it is the Formation Institute where I received my training in spiritual direction. (See link to the right)

The week began with seminars presented by Tilden Edwards, cofounder of the institute. He fed us with information, insights and experiential offerings. The "meat" of the event, though, was 48 hours of total silence in community.

We lived together, ate together, moved through the day like any other group of people at a conference. The fundamental difference was that we were silent. As we moved through whatever activity was unfolding, the voice to which each ear and heart was inclined was the
still
small
voice of God.

I have returned. However, it will take some time to pick up the pace of routine and schedule. It will take time, also, to be accustomed to the click, glow,twirp and hum of technology.

You see, while I was away things were radically different:

If there were any clicks...it was that internal "click" of connection and understanding...it was the awareness of something genuine that is received from deep within rather than from an external source. It was a click that had resonance and a lingering touch that was like a gentle massage of the soul.

If there were any glows it was the glow of the candle in the center of the circle of 25 or so chairs. Or, it was the glow of connection that emerged in the eyes of others. Or it was the glow of God's presence radiating from murmurs of breezes or winks from dew drops upon leaves and spider webs.

Cell phones and electronic notification devices were turned OFF....no twirping buzzing or vibrating to jerk us back to "reality". As a result, I (and we) basked in that most real of places, in the deepest most intimate heart of God.

When the children of God pay prolonged attention to what is being spoken by God, awesome sights and sounds are proclaimed. There is a constant interplay between the external surroundings of people, places or situations and the immanent underlying presence which is God.

You perceive things differently when you are seeking God first, with the desire to notice whatever it is that God would have you see.

This is how it works when I am practicing silence: The world appears very different, not because IT is different, but rather because I am setting aside my "self" and following God's leading to notice what God would have me see. One of the first things to dissolve is the rigid, critical judgement of something or someone as either important or, on the other hand,irrelevant. Because of the limitations of human perception, ordinary judgement is centered in the ego...either yours or mine. Extraordinary perception is given through and from God's Loving and Holy Spirit.

This I know is true! ....when I am preoccupied with myself or with the world, I will miss what is most important.

Leaning into the heart and hand of God reminds me that I know so very, very little about what is going on. Only by trusting the loving, authoritative wisdom of God can I possibly hope to see what is TRULY before my eyes...in the form of the other person...or in abundance which is in the world but not of the world....abundance of the kingdom of God.

So I am back....and this all seems fresh and new even in its familiarity.

Amen.