where you will find relief for your scorched places

It's not that I think that we all need to get back to silence. It is that I KNOW.

And I can not even speak of another shooting. Of the fact that my husband was in Las Vegas all last week on business. But I can share with you that had I let my mind wander into the ocean of "what if's" and "could you imagine if he were there's" and "how could my bones have possibly held me up should my husband have had to experience that unspeakable chaos again"...had I given my mind permission to go there, it would be no different than turning on every electronic device, TV and radio, letting all nine animals to run out the front door, opening every window, and setting all volumes on high, then climbing up on the kitchen table and screaming my head off. In other words? It would be of no help. It would be of no comfort. It would only be noise, movement, pointless action, robbing me of any chance to hear the whisper of my healer, who I so desperately strain to hear.

Nor do I fight back with my words, my opinions, what laws should or shouldn't be, because arguing and finger pointing just adds heat to my already scorched places. But do you want to know what does help? Do you want to know what does quench my thirst (because nothing dries you up completely and has you gulping down glasses of water like significant trauma.)?

SILENCE.

And if we weren't so afraid of sitting still in the quiet....because of where our minds might go, what our hearts might feel....what voice might be heard...I believe with every fiber in me, that things would significantly change. Things in you, things in me, things in our families, things in our marriages, things in our communities, things in our schools...and so on and so on and so on.

People. We all really need to stop talking, stop being busy, stop stop STOP...and listen.

A few days ago I made the decision to wake up an hour earlier, while still dark, to light a candle, and to just sit in the quiet. No devotional. No spiritual reading. No rosary. No writing. Just listening. And by the way, by saying "I made the decision", I really mean, GOD made the decision. Because He kept waking me earlier than my alarm had been set for. And yes, we can chalk this up to being restless, to having too much stress, to simply not being a good sleeper...but what if it is none of that? What if it is God, lightly tapping our shoulder, gently kissing our forehead, and whispering, "It is time to get up. Come, my beautiful one...get your coffee, and come sit with me...I have so much I want to tell you."

Before the noise of the day. Before the packing of lunches, before the rides to school, before the dishes in the sink, before the social media avalanche that buries us alive, before the treadmills we jump on, both figuratively and literally, before we get out there to be heard and fight and to complain and to point our fingers and shake our heads and tell the first person we run into how exhausted we are...before all of that. Find your silence. Because there is no comfort in the noise. There is no healing in the busyness. Find your silence. Close your eyes, open your hearts and your ears, close your mouths, and listen for the whisper in your heart. Because it is only when we do this, when we are still, that we can begin to understand what is happening in us and around us. It is only in the darkness that we can recognize the light, see our path, and trust the One guiding us. It is here, you will be given strength to your bones, where you will be continually guided, where scorched places will be satisfied. (Isaiah 57)

NOISE WILL NEVER SATISFY.

So we either have to stop listening to it, or stop making it.

I don't know about you, but I need to enter into peace in a big way.

This world needs to enter into peace in a big way.

If you have just woken up and already, are troubled by the length of your road, already feel hopeless, today is a good day then to turn the world off. This does not mean to be ignorant. This does not mean to not be engaged. This does not mean to not be a world changer. What this means is in order to do all of that, in order to bring others into peace, we first must enter into a peace of our own.

Narrow your path, close up your gate, light a candle, and sit in the silence.

Sit, and listen for the whisper.

Sit, and be with the whisperer.

"The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body." - Proverbs 26:22