Watch an athlete or artist the next time you go to a sports event or concert.

Take a close look at the gymnast on the trampoline, or the ballet dancer, or the Olympic diver preparing to make her all-important dive, or the tennis pro in the final set of competition.

Watch the orchestra conductor before he starts leading the musicians.

You will see that each one consciously stills herself or himself before he and she brings their chosen art form to life.

Observe how each one takes a few moments to silence and still her body and soul, to bring herself to her ‘centre’, her heart, so that she will be able to bring her inert, seemingly ‘dead’ instrument to pulsating life?

We humans have to gather together our distracted energies in order to have the power needed to enter into a supreme and beautiful act of creation!

In heart prayer, you are like these athletes and artists. You need the energy afforded by solitude, stillness and silence to enter into the most creative act there is for human beings —the act of opening your whole self to God’s presence.

You need to come to your centre if you are to give yourself the chance to become fully present, fully alive to God, to the Lord of all life.

 The psalmist understood this well when he said:

‘Be still, and know that I am God…’

Psalm 46:10, my emphasis

This is why the short preparation leading up to prayer of the heart is as important as the few minutes of prayer itself. 

A New Way of Listening:

How Silence Opens Up a Clear Path Between You and God

You live in a world of continuous noise.

You live in a world buzzing with endless talking.

You can’t escape the omnipresent ring of a cell-phone in a restaurant, the train, plane —and even at funerals!

You might fall to the temptation of carrying on a conversation with a friend while simultaneously talking on your cellphone.

You have been born into a culture of the internet, twenty-four-hour television, smart-phones, and social media.

You and I find it increasingly hard to be truly present to each other —even to our own spouse, children, and grandchildren!

Our culture has tricked us into believing that we can be present to another person while simultaneously carrying on a conversation with a third party on our cell phone or rocking to the music of our iPod or Smartphone!

We cook our dinner and talk on the phone at the same time. That might work for the ‘talking’ part. But for the ‘listening’ part —???

It’s no surprise, then, that we now see nothing wrong with talking on the phone during family meals!

You’re badly mistaken if you think that this ‘outer’ noise doesn’t translate to your inner, spiritual world.

You see, when your inner world is noisy, it’s much harder to enter fully into God’s presence.

If you desire to be present to the Lord, you have to counter this cultural mindset of non-stop noise.

You have to make a conscious effort to leave behind the atmospheric static of your inner and outer worlds that scrambles, distorts or blocks out altogether your free-flowing, two-way ‘conversation’ (prayer) with God, and His with you.

Prayer of the heart achieves exactly this. In fact, in this way of praying you discover a new way of listening.

When you do this, you’ll be able to open up the inner space God needs to be fully present to you, and you need if you wish to be more fully present to Him.

Don’t kid yourself. God himself, too, needs and relies on this space being opened up!

Why Silence Must Be Part of 

Your Spiritual Journey

Have you ever listened to a favorite CD or read a fascinating book several times and realized each time that you missed something really important when you listened to or read it the last time?  

It’s just like that in real, everyday life. When you fill your mind and heart with noise, you miss important aspects of your daily life experience and of your personal relationships.

Worst of all, you lose touch with your deepest self, your ‘true’ self,  the only part of you where you and God together are able to live life to the full (John 10:10), the only part of you where you are able to help the Lord carry out His purposes for your own life and for His wider world.

When you lose touch with your true self, you cheat yourself of a meaningful, rewarding, high-quality life and of healthy, rewarding personal relationships.

Most of all, you cheat yourself of a high-quality friendship and relationship with the Lord.

“If my silence cannot teach him, then my words certainly can’t.”

A young man was directed to a holy wisdom-person for advice on his spiritual life.

During the visit, the holy man spent much of the time in silence.

After the young man left, the disciples of the holy man were eager to find out what advice the holy man had given his visitor.

The holy man told them he had been silent for most of the visit.

Whereupon they confronted the holy hermit and demanded to know how he thought that his silence could possibly have given the visitor the guidance which he had been so earnestly seeking.

Quietly, and without missing a beat, the holy man replied:

“If my silence cannot teach him, then my words certainly can’t.”

It is said that Francis of Assisi taught his followers to preach the Gospel of Christ unreservedly, using words only when necessary!

You see, your words serve a purpose only when they are supported by a deeper inner truth that resides inside you.

And this inner truth only finds nurture in silence!

And it’s in your inner truth that the Lord himself lives.

The Old and New Testaments, and the Father and Jesus, call this vitally important part of you, your heart. 

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Try these exercises …

Exercise 1

 1. Think of one or two ways in which you might be able to successfully reduce the continuous noise in your own/your family’s life —if only by a few minutes each day.

Jot down your ideas in a notepad/diary.

Exercise 2

Can you think of a gentle, non-intrusive way to invite those in your immediate family to a few minutes of daily quiet?

e.g. ‘Come Tommy, let’s go outside and take a look at the sunset, watch/listen to the birds.’
Note:
You might be surprised to find that ‘Tommy’ enjoys it so much that he will soon be asking you to do it.
It’s definitely worth a try.

Exercise 3

Try spending a small part of a day or two ‘preaching’ the Gospel to a person or persons whom you know need unconditional love. (That would certainly include your own family, but it could also include others.)
Note
Do this without using any ‘preaching’ or ‘advice’ words.
Let your heart and actions ‘speak’ freely for themselves!
Write down briefly what this experience taught/teaches you.
Be as specific as you can.

Exercise 4

Take a trip to the country where you can watch sheep or cows grazing.
But before you do, may I share an experience of my own with you?
Most days, I fast-walk for exercise. Frequently, I pass grazing cows.
And at the times when I feel too lazy to walk, the sight of the cows at pasture always wins me over!
Why?
Because it’s an excellent image of a relaxed, ‘at-ease’, meaningful existence!
Those cows are perfectly comfortable in their own skins.
They stretch out comfortably on the grass mulling over their ‘thoughts’ and ‘experiences’ (i. e. chewing their cud!) in a totally at-ease way; and they take their time to do it.
No hustling for them!

This happens for YOU when you learn how to enter into God’s Presence.
And one of the many benefits of this way of praying is that it allows you to gradually hand over all your cares and anxieties to God (1 Peter 5:7).
Like the cows, you are able to live a relaxed, meaningful life.

The regular, repeated experience of entering into God’s Presence anchors your Christian journey in an ongoing experience of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), which includes peace and joy.

Like the grazing cows you, too, will be ‘at ease’.
You will be comfortable in your own spiritual, physical, emotional, and psychological skins.
You’ll discover that the frenetic speed and hustle of your life gradually becomes a thing of the past!