Stillness Speaks

It seems like the message of "being still and silent" keeps showing up in my life so obviously it is a message I need to hear. It's been the primary message in the two books I'm reading right now and the focus of the last two homilies at church. Clearly, God is working on me and wants me to understand and practice the act of being still and silent. It is the one practice that truly allows you to connect to that inner spirit and be present and open to divine guidance. It is a place free of stress and anxiety. Being silent and still allows you to disengage from the constraints of time and space and just simply "be". I'm learning to discover that it is in that place of just "being" that the true essence of who we are can be found and heard.

In being completely still and silent, we disconnect from the endless mind chatter that seems to rule our thoughts every minute of the day and connect with the divine presence that is in each and every one of us. We can go searching everywhere outside for answers but the real answers lie within and we need to recognize that the inner-reflection and space we make to be silent will allow those answers to be heard. The answers don't lie in the past or in the future, they lie right here, right now in the present moment. When we go outside the present moment to seek the answer, we immediately disconnect from that divine presence and allow external thoughts and forces to guide us and it is in that moment that stress and anxiety enter into the process of finding the answer. God just "is"; He is not bounded by a past or a future, He just "is" as stated in Exodus, 3:14, "I AM THAT I AM" and we're reminded again in Revelation 22:13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." God is purely present and for us to connect with Him, we need to be purely present as well. The act of being purely present lies in the stillness of our hearts and minds as we are reminded again in Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God." To know God is to be still and listen.

God knows the desires of our heart and is eagerly waiting to lead us to them. "For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also" – Luke 12:34. Our ego will not lead us to that treasure, we have to tap into our inner spirit and that happens when we become still and silent. I am awed by the realization of this and know it is a message worth spreading!