Quiet Please

I haven’t golfed for over 20 years, but this past weekend, if you’ll pardon the pun, I gave it a shot.

Golfing just felt right this Sunday. The weather was perfect and the crowd non-existent. (This may have something to do with the fact that the Colts kicked off right about the time I teed off.)

Walking onto the first fairway, I soon remembered why I love the game. With the green carpet stretching out before me and the blue canopy of sky overhead, I was struck with the peace and quiet. All was still, save the occasional sound of a ball being well hit, or plopping politely if it found the water.

Ironically, not far into the game, I managed to sabotage the afternoon. Thinking I actually knew what I was talking about, I began offering every possible instruction to my family with regard to golf etiquette, the appropriate club choice for each shot, the certainty that the obviously flawed direction of my husband’s feet or placement of my son’s grip would be the ruin of their shot, blah, blah, blah…

Our peaceful, afternoon was shattered by the lecturing of yours truly.

Why is it that I tend to be my own worst enemy when it comes to enjoying quiet? Setting out on a morning walk with every intention of spending time with God, I usually fill most of the quiet with my own voice in prayer requests. Rather than being still before God, I talk, talk, talk, and miss everything I might have learned from Him if I’d only kept quiet.

Ruth Haley Barton, the author of Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, cautions,
“The discipline of solitude is a key discipline for all those who seek afer God. It is the primary place where the leader’s soul is strengthened.

And A. W. Tozer gets practical…

It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our Bible outspread before us. Then if we will, we may draw near to God and begin to hear Him speak to us in our hearts. I think for the average person the progression will be something like this: First a sound as of a Presence walking in the garden. Then a voice, more intelligible, but still far from clear. Then the happy moment when the Spirit begins to illuminate the Scriptures, and that which had been only a sound, or at best a voice, now becomes an intelligible word, warm and intimate and clear as the word of a dear friend. Then will come life and light, and best of all, ability to see and rest in and embrace Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and All.

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, the Speaking Voice

Shepherds, will you share with each other the ways you make room for solitude with God in the posts below?