“A word with power is a word that comes out of silence.
A word that bears fruit is a word that emerges from the silence and returns to it.
It is a word that reminds us of the silence from which it comes and leads us back to that silence.”
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart
I have been pressing into the connection between the formation that happens through the contemplative life and the formation that happens through stepping out into active mercy and justice. I’m convinced more and more, that to live a Christ-centric life of love, mercy, and justice, means to passionately pursue the way that Jesus walked out His conversational life with the Father. One of the practices that we see in His life is silence and solitude, and at times this practice seems foreign in our society. But I do think that if we hope to live lives of love, acceptance, and forgiveness, we need to learn to let go, be quiet, and listen to the Lord’s voice. Not in a way that is extracurricular to the outward efforts, but in a way that all those efforts find their origin from the inner life with the Father.
But Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing alone. The Son does only what he sees the Father doing, because the Son does whatever the Father does. – John 5:19
Recently, I taught about this at our worship community in a message called: “Silence in the Way of Jesus.”