Reflections for 2/12/10

"We must learn to trust God. Developing that trust is worth some particular attention, worth making time to stop and pray, and be quiet in God. That may be impractical, but the way of faith is not the way of efficiency. God has not called us to an efficient way of life. We are called to a way of faith. Much is a matter of listening and waiting." (R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 77)

It seems to me that we are as a society trying to enter into a leaner more efficient way to do things. With budgets stretched at every level, and our schedules so over scheduled that this idea of multitasking has become the norm. We start to resemble the Cat in the Hat, until just like that cat, we fall and a big mess gets made.

I'll admit that I like efficient things, especially meetings. Get to the point do the business needed and go home. That efficiency is often co-opted by anothers need for socializing. And that is sometimes hard to deal with.

I do know that finding the time to be quiet in God is very hard. When I lead workshops on spiritual disciplines, I always try to get folks to see the first hurdle, deciding to make the time. I try to start off small and as I find that 5 minutes wasn't to hard, expand it a little further. What I do find is that when the time is made for that quiet time alone with God, the day lays itself out with a lot more clarity. I can see what is truly necessary for that day, and what would be an added bonus to get done. One of the more interesting by products of a good prayer life for me, is actually being more efficient. But I think the order often gets flipped for folks, become more efficient to have a better prayer life.

So perhaps a goal is to ask in the silence which is the best way to do something? The faithful answer comes in that period of quiet time. The challenge is to go make that time available to yourself.

Blessings,
Ed