At the request of a friend, here is a blog! Love you girl.
First off–I had an awesome, but very short visit to AU. It was SO GOOD to see & surprise everyone that I have missed so very much! It’s so lonely here. I want to be back with you guys soon! :(
Buuut…on a positive note, one more week and I get to see this realllly cute boy. I’ll never want him to leave. <3
By the way, good luck on finals! I definitely don’t miss the stress of college, ha.
Keep praying for my dad– he has a CT scan next week and we will find out if the tumor is gone. He is done with radiation and will continue chemo into January. Besides physical healing, pray that he may find God in all of this.
On Sunday night at small group, the NOOMA video we watched was called “Noise.” You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSvo3TBzLu0&feature=related It was about how it’s very common to constantly have some type of noise around us…whether it’s music, tv, talking, reading, etc. Most people do not take a few minutes out of their day just to sit in silence, although we should. A lot of times God will speak in the silence in a very faint and still “voice.” Rob Bell mentioned one time when God told Elijah to meet him on the mountain…there was wind, an earthquake, and fire, but God wasn’t in those. He was in the silence. In the video, Rob Bell only spoke at the beginning and the end, but most of the video was just silent, with questions that came up on the screen. So we all just sat there totally silent while reading the screen to ourselves for, I’m guessing, 8 minutes. I think we all agreed it was awkward at first, just sitting in complete silence… which proves the point that we are so accustomed to noise. Rachelle said it would be a good challenge to take just 5 minutes of silence everyday. So far I haven’t done so, but I plan to today. It sounds easy, just 5 minutes, but it’s actually not considering I haven’t done so yet. Sad.
I think it’s not only about being literally “silent,” but also still. I picture just sitting in my bed with no distractions, no sound, no movement besides my breathing and heart beat. Just God & me.
Here’s some questions from the video that I am answering personally.
Why is silence so hard to deal with? For one, we aren’t used to it. It’s not our normal world. Maybe we’re afraid of what we’ll hear in silence…about ourselves, about life, about God, from God.
Is there such a thing as visual noise? Yes I think so…like reading or just anything that can distract us from the silence.
Do you feel like God is distant? Sometimes I do…but if we draw near to Him, he will draw near to us. Silence.
Do you wish God’s voice would be louder in your life? Sometimes yes I feel like God isn’t telling me anything!! But am I really listening?? Am I giving Him the chance to speak to me?
Is there a connection between the amount of noise in our lives and our inability to hear God? I would say definitely. But I would also like to say that God can speak through noise also..like books, people, music, etc
When was the last time you were in a solitary place? Well personally I have been alone a lot these past 3 months, but I’m still around my family at home. And still with noise in the background most of the time.
Why is it easier to surround myself with noise and keep moving than to stop, be silent and listen? Our world is busy…constantly moving. We always feel like we have to be doing something. However, we are not supposed to be of the world.
Have you spent the same amount of time worrying and talking about your difficult, confusing situations as you have spent in silence, listening to what God has to say?
WOW! What a question… within the trials of the past few months, I would say no…
Why is talking so much easier than listening? I think listening takes more effort instead of just running our mouths.
How much noise do I voluntarily subject myself to? Probably a lot of it.
Does my schedule, my time, my life look like that of a person who wants to hear God’s voice? Another GOOD, but tough question. I would say definitely more so than last year, but that’s partly because I’m not in school right now. If I answered this last year I would say no. It’s so hard to balance school with other things, but God is definitely important enough to try my hardest.
Do you really believe that God’s voice is more interesting than the voices around you? Yet another good one. I’d say we better believe.
Is it possible that you have been searching for God in the winds, the earthquakes and fires and He is waiting to speak to you in the silence? Very possible
“Then Moses and the priests, who are Levites, said to all Israel, “Be silent, Oh Israel, and listen!” Deuteronomy 27:9
“Search your hearts and be silent” Psalm 4:4
“But the Lord is in His holy temple: Let all the earth be silent before him.” Habakkuk 2:20
“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” Matthew 11
“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16
“Be still, and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10
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I read Ecclesiastes recently and these are a few verses that stuck out to me:
“As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.”
Ecclesiastes 11:5
“When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, a man cannot discover
anything about his future.”
Ecclesiastes 7:14
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (Morrison’s verse of the year)
I think a lot of times I try to understand things that are way beyond what I can fathom..I should leave it up to God. Why is this happening? What does my future hold? What is God’s plan in all this? The verses above show that.
I think this verse goes along with the ones from Ecclesiastes…
“All mankind will fear;
they will proclaim the works of God
and ponder what he has done.” Psalm 63:9
We can ponder, yes, but not understand.
And this is just a good one…
“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens,
Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.”
Psalm 68:20
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