Listening for Him

"Settle yourself in solitude and you will come upon Him in yourself." -Teresa of Avila

Many of us who attend Gateway Church recently completed a 60 day experiment and sermon series titled Soul Revolution. The goal of the experiment, as described in John Burke’s book by the same name, is for participants to make a conscious effort to connect with God in some way every 60 minutes for 60 days. A lofty goal, for sure! As a church body we supported each other during these two months by meeting weekly in small groups or with spiritual running partners. We also shared our struggles and triumphs through online blogs at http://www.soulrevolution.net/.

In the last week of our study one of our small group activities challenged us individually to re-evaluate our life goals and consider who we hope to be three (or perhaps even ten) years from now. While I pondered this question briefly at that time, I decided to largely postpone the exercise until I started my vacation. Knowing I would have huge blocks of time to sit in solitude and prayerfully dream about my future, I waited until I arrived here to take this on.

Truly, this exercise is not entirely unfamiliar to me. I’ll shamelessly admit to being one of those people who religiously (no pun intended) sits down each December and makes a list of resolutions for the coming year. I think I´ve been doing this now for twenty years or more. Occasionally I’m even brave enough to post my list on the refrigerator, making it not only more visible to me, but adding an accountability factor.

But this experiment is different. It´s not about making a 12 month to do list (or even a 36 month one), it´s about going deeper. Deciding who I want to be involves setting life goals, and requires a lot more time for reflection and prayer. And therefore, more solitude.

A few days in to my vacation, I now have a rough-draft list. I reviewed it tonight as I settled in for a couple of hours of quiet time. I’m finding that the list grows and changes as I listen for God’s voice in the silence. Tonight I subdivided my list into sections, including: personal growth, career & finances, family & friends, spiritual gifts & evangelism. I’m sure I’ll make more changes as God’s voice becomes louder. Which, I am finding, is exactly what happens when I become quieter.

"The voice of God is that secret voice unheard by any other ear, which our own ear, opened by the Spirit of God recognizes with joy." --Charles Spurgeon