And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

Monday, June 12, 2017

Hearing in the Silence

I have been praying a dangerous prayer. A prayer that is always shaking things up, and always throwing me for a loop.  Unravel me.  Take my broken places, my darkest bits and unravel them.  Turn them into what you want God!   (Be warned, things will change if you step down this path!)  So, unraveling is happening, and has been for a long time, but this winter a whole new space unraveled, and together God and I have been rebuilding it. .

God changed the way he speaks to me this winter.  We had a rhythm, God and I.  We spent time together everyday, and for the most part, the time was a little give, and a little take, a lot of talking, a lot of reading, a lot of writing.  I write my heart to God and write what I am hearing from him.  I am a writer at heart.  I might not write anything for anyone else, I may never be published.  I am certainly not Jane Austen, but I write.  A lot.  

This winter the writing stopped.  The words dried up, and there was silence.  I resisted of course, sitting in front of my journal and filling it with questions, writing down God's word and waiting for more to come, but it never did.  The out pouring of words that had once been the normal rhythm was gone.  Not only did my journal sit empty but I was silent.  I wasn't writing at all... not blog post, a poem a song, a novel....nothing.  I was left staring at blank pages.

I still felt God,  He wasn't gone.  He was reaching out in a totally different way.   I felt his prompting and I heard the things he was saying to me...

Be still.
Listen.
I am here,
Just be.

My heart protested.  My brain froze.  I questioned.  I don't want to just sit here I thought.  I have dishes to do, and lunches to make and I haven't slept the night through since I had children!  I want to spend time with you God!  You created me to write God, and now there is nothing!  What gives?  Where did all the words go?

Be steadfast.
Be still.
Breathe.
Listen.
Be steadfast. 

And so I read my bible, and I sat.  I sat and listened.   I sat and soaked in his presence.  I set my journal to the side and we sat together God and I.  I shut out the noise, and the distractions, I let the dishes go.  I sat.  To say it was easy would be a complete lie, but as I read and sat God revealed himself to me in in a whole new way.

He led me to Isaiah 26:3 over and over again.  "You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you."  Really if you get a chance the entire chapter is great, but verse three became my focus.  Keep steadfast, Listen, I trust you God.  Ok, I am here.  I am sitting.  I am still.

Slowly, after months of this new way of spending time with God the words started to come back again.   I dipped my toe into the writing pool and the pages began to fill up again.  And yet, as much as I loved the rhythm I found I had experienced change in my heart.  Some mornings when I sit down in the quiet to spend time with God I find I don't want to pick up my journal.  I want to sit in the silence and focus.  I just want to be still, and listen.

I unraveled, and He took those small broken pieces and built me back together.  Stronger, more peaceful, and more focused.  It is a journey and not everyday is perfect, but I am in perfect peace knowing that as those pieces come unraveled I can trust that God is rebuilding, remaking, and filling me with love and grace.   I don't have to have the strength as I unravel, I don't have to have the answers, and I don't have to know what happens next.  God has that all covered.  I just need to keep turning to him.