Good morning…
Many of you loved yesterday’s post, Steve’s Sermon On Saturday, words given by my husband to graduating high school seniors. He spoke of The Great Forgetting, our naturally human tendency to forget important things as we move forward in life. He challenged us to become people who actively remember.
“…for remembering who God has created you to be – for remembering God’s promises to you when life gets tough – for remembering you’re forgiven when you mess up – for remembering how to be your best self, setting aside the selfishness that so often plagues us – for remembering that you have value and worth far beyond any grades you’ll ever get or any job you’ll ever hold – for that – ” Steve said, “I encourage you to get up a minute or two before class or perhaps before you go to bed at night and say a prayer. That prayer will serve as a reminder about who you are and whose you are.”
After posting Steve’s sermon, I opened the morning message from Henri Nouwen for May 18th, which was resting in my inbox. God seemed to step up to the microphone, continuing to speak.
“Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus who dwells in the very depths of your heart,” God whispers through Nouwen. “He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love. Whatever you do with your life, go on listening to the voice of Jesus in your heart. This listening must be an active and very attentive listening, for in our restless and noisy world God’s loving voice is so easily drowned out. You need to set aside some time every day for this active listening to God if only for ten minutes. Ten minutes each day for Jesus alone can bring about a radical change in your life.”
“You’ll find it isn’t easy to be still for ten minutes at a time,” Nouwen warns. “You’ll discover straightaway that many other voices, voices that are very noisy and distracting, voices that do not come from God, demand your attention. But if you stick to your daily prayer time, then slowly but surely you’ll come to hear the gentle voice of love and will long more and more to listen to it.”
All of us, at every age, naturally drift toward “the great forgetting” and the loving voice of Jesus in our hearts can easily be drowned out by noisy, distracting voices that do not come from God. All of us, at every age, have important choices to make each day.
“Get up a little earlier or say a prayer before bed,” Steve suggests.
“Set aside some time every day for this active listening to God, if only ten minutes,” adds Nouwen.
Investing ten minutes each day to develop a conversational relationship with Christ can bring about radical change. Sticking with our daily prayer time, slowly but surely we will learn to hear the gentle voice of love. Sensing God’s guiding voice, we will long more and more to listen and be led.
…he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths… (Psalm 23:2b-3a, NIV).
…Sue…
