Seek silence. Be aware of the silence. I\u2019m talking about now, and I\u2019m really talking about where you\u2019ll find the Lord within you as your companion, as one who walks with you, who shows you the way.<\/p>\n
If you lose track of the silence, then you\u2019re losing track of the Lord. The voice stays constant, as in silence. It\u2019s rare when it becomes something vocal and audible; I would certainly pay attention when it takes on that level of manifestation, but don\u2019t demand or judge if the Lord is unheard or unseen and somehow is not present for you.<\/p>\n
Some people wonder, \u201cHow do I follow the Lord who is unseen and unheard?\u201d It\u2019s as though that countenance has become you. If you look in the mirror to see the Lord, and you see yourself and say, \u201cOh, I guess the Lord\u2019s not here,\u201d you\u2019re missing something. The invisibility and the inaudibility are upon you. When you look into the mirror, there\u2019s the opportunity to somehow catch that presence. So be open to the presence of the Lord and, also, be open to it in whatever circumstance you find.<\/p>\n
You can ask for guidance in this moment, in this day, and extend it out so you\u2019re asking for today and for always. Why not? If you can get \u201calways,\u201d get it: like, \u201cI\u2019d like to follow you always.\u201d You might get your prayer answered. Or it could be \u201cFrom this moment on, I\u2019m always following the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Look for it in the simplicity. That means it\u2019s present here and now in its fullness. The Lord will make itself known to you somehow, someway; that\u2019s your faith and trust. And if you find that it\u2019s just wide open, meaning either you\u2019re seeing it in everything or you\u2019re seeing it in nothing, that\u2019s fine. You can still work with that.<\/p>\n
You work with that however you do. If you just sit there and do nothing, then make it something, as best you can, in that the Lord would be with you. If it\u2019s nothing, if you don\u2019t know what to do, how about just enjoying yourself? How about just being at peace, chilling out, being neutral, letting go, with no demands?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh,\u201d you might say, \u201cI want to know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
How about just not knowing what to do and being okay with that? That can be the way the Lord is leading you right now\u2014that you don\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lord would lead me into not knowing what to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
It could, as a way of keeping you in hold because you\u2019re kind of impulsive when you do things. Like, you\u2019ve gotten in a lot of trouble doing what you thought you knew you should do. But right now, you don\u2019t know what to do, and that\u2019s good. So, don\u2019t do anything. Just sit there and enjoy your patience and acceptance until you do know what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long am I going to have to sit there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Is that really important to you? Are you willing to wait on the Lord?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m kind of impatient.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s familiar, isn\u2019t it? How about just giving the Lord your patience, paying the Lord your patience, trusting that when it\u2019s time, when there clearly is something for you to do, it will be shown to you?<\/p>\n
Just imagine your own existence and how often you\u2019ve been waiting on the Lord, wanting to know the best thing for you to do. But you got impatient, and you went ahead and did something. You may have thought, \u201cWell, at least I can do this<\/em>,\u201d even though you knew that really wasn\u2019t in your best interests. You knew!<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but it was the only thing I could see to do.\u201d<\/p>\n How about nothing?<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t see doing nothing. I\u2019m too important to do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, the Lord does a lot of it when there is no thing<\/em>. And that\u2019s what the Lord is, no thing. It\u2019s in the space. It\u2019s in the invisible, where it\u2019s not seen, when it\u2019s not heard. It\u2019s in the no thing, the stillness.<\/p>\n If you learn how to be a companion to the silence, to the invisible, you\u2019re a saint. The saints I know are companions of silence. They walk in silence. They act in silence. Do they make noise? Can you hear them? Sure, but that\u2019s not the point. It\u2019s in the silence that the truth is heard and revealed. If you consider the truth of what is being said here, you also would consider not doing a thing.<\/p>\n The truth is in the silence and then the nothingness. So when you act, when you express, you somehow move out of that truth. But always keep this in mind: you can never move out where the Lord does not keep you, does not hold you, does not go with you.<\/p>\n The ones known as the Friends, sometimes referred to as the Quakers (and it is not limited to the Quakers), are those who witness into the living Spirit, those are the friends. They listen first to the silence. The silence is who speaks.<\/p>\n And if you listen and you hear something, check to see if the voice of silence is in the words, if the invisible is in what you see. And the one in you that is that will know that.<\/p>\n Baruch Bashan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seek silence. Be aware of the silence. I\u2019m talking about now, and I\u2019m really talking about where you\u2019ll find the Lord within you as your companion, as one who walks with you, who shows you the way. If you lose track of the silence, then you\u2019re losing track of the Lord. The voice stays constant, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[261,184,257],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-1614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-john-mortons-current-story","category-spiritual-exercises","category-ndh-archives","tag-john-morton"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}