Lent

Right now I've got so many things going on I shouldn't even be taking time to write a blog entry. This Lent thing has me pretty busy. I wanted to share my newsletter article for this month, see if anyone has any thoughts. I've been thinking a lot about the invitation to silence, finding time for solitude as just another "thing" I've got to add to my already over full schedule.

This Lenten season we’ve been using the theme “Listen to Lent”. The idea is that we can all take some time and listen deeply to what’s going on in us and what’s going on in the world around us. As I’ve tried to practice this myself I’ve noticed just how difficult it is to find a quiet moment. We live in a very noisy world. It seems there is always something to distract me, pulling my attention away from deep thinking. The funny thing is a lot of the “noise” in my life is my fault. I can’t complain too much about the noisy world with out looking at myself. I turn on the TV or the radio and bring a lot of these distractions into my world. Sometimes, when I’m home alone, I turn on the TV, not even intending to watch it, but just to have some noise in the background because a silent house seems strange to me. Maybe that is a symptom of living in a noisy world; it makes the quiet times seem strange.
I would guess I’m not alone in this. I’ve heard other people say that finding quiet time is hard. But I think it’s more than that. I think we can find those quiet times out there. But we’ve been so conditioned to noise and being busy that even when we have time for quiet we resist it. There are plenty of ways to avoid time for quiet, time to listen to yourself, time to listen to the world.
So this begs the question, “why listen?” Why should I put down the distractions and the business of my life and find time for quiet? What’s wrong with being busy and living a multitasked life? Really, I don’t know. It seems to me there are plenty of happy busy people out there that live their lives task to task, chore to chore, job to job. I suspect, though, eventually this wears a person out.


Ruth Haley Barton writes,
“When I am dangerously tired I can be very, very busy and look very, very important but be unable to hear the quiet, sure voice of the One who calls me the beloved. When that happens I lose touch with that place in the center of my being where I know who I am in God, where I know what I am called to do, and where I am responsive to God’s voice above all others. When that happens I am at the mercy of all manner of external forces, tossed and turned by other’s expectations and my own compulsions. These inner lacks then become the source of my frenetic activity, keeping me forever spiraling into deeper levels of exhaustion.”

I resonate with Barton’s words, for me they are an accurate articulation of what I suspect to be true. It calls to mind a passage of scripture from Ephesians 4, “We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” When we reach those levels of deep and dangerous exhaustion we are susceptible to people’s trickery, craftiness, we are more likely to be tossed to and fro by the gusty winds. Further, it is more difficult to hear the quiet voice of God calling us the beloved, calling us to act in love in the world.
Ironically, finding solitude and quiet can become one more thing in our already busy schedules that we have to do. But clearing a space for ourselves is a refreshing and recharging time, a time when we can listen for our deep joys, and hear the needs of a hungry world.
We’re all in this together, and I’d love to hear how you find time for quiet, how you listen.


This is a funny picture of Ethan I found, I thought it fit.