Sometimes the silence is daunting.

I sit and I sit and I sit and I wonder where God is.

I want the Voice, the delight, the spiritual moment, and when it is not there I wonder what went wrong.

Yet if I only experienced bliss, I might only trust in bliss. If I only experienced delight, I might only trust in delight.

I might never trust in the infallible character of God.

It is easier to make a lot of noise.

It is easier to keep up a steady stream of words and song.

By filling my space with words it is easier to convince myself that all in my world is as it should be.

By making a lot of religious din we assure our faltering hearts that everything is well. ~ A. W. Tozer

The silence, therefore, however daunting, is necessary.

I must be taught to rely on the Everlasting Father rather than on His comfort.

I must be taught to put my faith in the promise of His presence rather than on my experience of that presence.

I must be taught to trust in Christ the Rock regardless of any corroboration.

I need to sit in the silence.

God often withdraws His inward comforts. Sometimes for long periods.

I need to sit in His silence. And be okay with it.

The silence is still daunting.

I sit and I sit and I sit and I know that He is here.

I will put my trust in Him.

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Art credits: all photographs are copyright Made Sacred 2020

We are witnesses.

Jesus declared it, and so it must be.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Not I would like for you to be my witnesses or even I command you to be my witnesses but you will be my witnesses.

We who claim to be Christ-followers, we who carry the very name of Christ, we are His witnesses.

Whether we like or not.

We might be good witnesses.

We might be bad witnesses.

But make no mistake, we are witnesses.

Do you see that verb?

To be

Not you will witness but you will be my witness.

It is a state of being. A way of life. A walking along the Way that communicates the Truth about Life.

You do, of course, have to have witnessed something in order to be a witness.

It is not enough only to have heard about God, we must have experienced Him in order to be a good witness.

‘It is one thing,’ said Henry Suso, ‘to hear for oneself a sweet lute, sweetly played, and quite another thing merely to hear about it.’ And it is one thing, we may add, to hear truth inwardly for one’s very self, and quite another thing merely to hear about it…One word from the lips of the man who has actually heard the lute play will have more effect than a score of sermons by the man who has only heard that it was played. ~ A. W. Tozer

Experience is always better than secondhand.

And what if you have never truly witnessed God, never experienced His Holy Spirit? Or what if it has simply been a very long time?

Go away. Find time, make time to get by yourself. Sit before Him in silence. Wait. Do this over and over, refusing to let go until He lets Himself be known.

It does not have to come in any dramatic way. It mostly, in fact, does not. He was not, after all, in the great wind or the earthquake or the fire.

Most often He comes in the stillness, in the quiet. He comes in the little, in the overlooked. He comes in the still, small voice.

Which is why we must be silent and alone regularly in order to experience Him.

Once you do, however, He will, slow and small change by slow and small change, transform you into the witness He wants you to be.

Whether you even realize it or not.

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Art credits: The Road to Emmaus by Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert; Jesus and the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder; The Road to Emmaus by Robert Zund

It is so much easier to be a sinner than a saint.

Easier to give in, go along, look to the now.

The world’s goal is easy to see, culture’s race is short to run, while the race set out for us by our Rescuer seems so clouded with uncertainty, so far away from where we are now.

Progress in evil was quick and easy…The growth in goodness was so slow, at times so flat, so dull, and like the White Queen one had to run so fast to stay where one was, let alone progress; and there were few men who dared to say they had found God. ~ Elizabeth Goudge

I become so discouraged with my progress. I practice silence for months and find myself just as distracted as in the beginning. I practice gentleness with my children and find myself spewing anger yet again. I practice restraining my tongue with my husband and find myself opening my mouth without even thinking.

Will I ever see fruit come to bear in my life?

Will any of us ever bear the kind of fruit we were created to bear?

Yes. Even when we feel as though we are moving backward, even when we despair of ever getting it right, yes.

How do I know?

God promised.

He promised that He would complete this work begun in us. He promised that He would restore us to the way we were created to be. He promised to remake us into the image of His Son.

We only have to wait and hope.

Hope for what is promised, hope for what will be.

We must discipline ourselves to hope when our lives seem hopeless. We must discipline ourselves to trust that what is promised will be fulfilled. We must discipline ourselves never to despair but to cling to Truth and Love.

Our perfection has nothing to do with us and everything to do with the trustworthiness of the One who loves and is able to keep His promises.

His hands gripping the sides of the stall, he pronounced in words his belief that even for such as he, if he could endure to the end, eventual perfection was not only possible but certain through the grace of God, his conviction that despair was sin. The prayer of words was all he had now. The discipline of words must hold him up until the desert was crossed and the Seraph could sing again. ~ Elizabeth Goudge

Be still and endure. Discipline yourself to hope.

The Seraph will sing again.

To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

Art Credit: Alice and the Queen by John Tenniel