McMahon Life

The practice of silence is incredibly powerful.  I thought I would re-post this blog (from about a month ago) to remind us, and even help us.

In stillness we allow the world to blur out of our focus

Every Sunday at the Pursuit Project 2 junior high students sit in silence for 10 minutes learning to hear God.  Sometimes we hear God speak, sometimes we don’t.  I wanted to take time today and invite you, as you read this, to join us in the experience of silence.

Turn your phone on silent.

Turn off your music.

Close your door.

Find a comfortable position to sit in and begin to breath deeply.

Silence is about more than just listening for the Spirit to speak.  It is about that, but is is also about simply learning to be.  Breathe.
It reminds us that our value comes not from what we do, but from being children of God.  In that being lies our peace. Breathe.

In silence we allow the peace of God to be present within us, to overtake our spirit, to still our souls.  In that peace we experience His presence, we experience tranquility, we experience rest. Breathe.
It is from a place of inner peace that we experience external peace in our lives.  And it is in a place of silence, of stillness where that inner peace is realized. Breathe.

Jesus doesn’t talk just so that we can hear His voice, but to invite us to a deeper place of relationship with Him. Breathe.

We are going to do a little exercise of experiencing and listening to Jesus called “The Meeting Place”.  Please join me.  Each step is marked by a reminder to “breathe”.  Take as long as you need between steps.  The point is not to rush through, but to create space for God to speak to us. Breathe.

……………………………

As you breathe, take yourself in your mind to your favorite peaceful place. The ocean, a forest, a favorite Bible story.  Stay there.
Breathe. Look around.  What do you see there?
Breathe. Invite Jesus to join you in that place.  Do you see Him coming?
Breathe. How does He look at you?  How does He greet you?
Breathe. Ask Him what He would like to say to you.  What does He say?
Breathe. What  would you like to say to Him?  Share that with Him.
Breathe. Jesus is our healer.  By his wounds we are healed.  Notice the wounds in His hands from the nails of the cross. As Him to place His hands on any part of you that He would like to heal.
Breathe. Jesus’ position toward you is that of love.  Do you hear Him tell you of His love for you?  Stop and listen for a moment.
Breathe. Thank Him for meeting you here.  Share anything else you would like to tell Him.
Breathe.

…………………………………………………

Did you experience God?  I hope so.  Did Jesus meet you in your meeting place?  Sometimes He does, and it’s beautiful, sometimes He doesn’t.  Let us not become discouraged, but let us continue to create space in our lives where we can sit with and listen to Jesus.  For He is our peace.

Thank you for joining me in this today.

What is power? I get the impression from history, from government, from news and pop culture that power is the ability to control, infuence, or manipulate people to get the end result that you want. It seems to have to do with being in charge, being the top dog, the go-to person, the final say, and the controling force.

I do not doubt that we, as Christians are fairly comfortable recognizing some of the problems with that type of “power”, and definitely can recognize that the power of Jesus didn’t look like any of that.  There was no desire to manipulate, to force something to happen.  On the contrary, Jesus submitted himself to humiliation, to death, to mocking and ridicule as He taught an alternative method of leading, or carrying “power”.

I have recently been reading through Proverbs with our LifeJournal readings, and yesterday came across 2 verses that really spoke to me about power. Proverbs 16:32 says:

Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self control than to conquer a city.

Proverbs 17:27 says,

A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even tempered.

I think of the stories of the old Desert Fathers – monks who would remove themselves from the world to be only with God in the desert.  They did not seek to promote themselves (most of them didn’t anyway), nor did they seek to demonstrate their wisdom.  However, as they spent time in the presence of God and in Scripture, the Holy Spirit taught them and they because incredibly wise.  People from great distances would come to them to hear them speak and to ask them advice.

Hmm. Kind of like the way people would come from every corner of Israel to listen to Jesus!  So maybe there really is something to this idea of patience, of learning to listen, of listening and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us wisdom.

Better to be patient than powerful.  Let us not rush to establish ourselves, to identify ourselves as the best, smartest, greatest.  Instead, let us be content to be in the presence of God.  For in that presence is everything that we need.

If you are struggling to find peace in the presence of God, try this: http://mcmahonlife.com/archives/550 .

I wonder what our community could look like if all of us who follow Jesus really devoted ourselves to the practice of listening to others, to patience, to being “even-tempered”, and to being in the presence of God.  Could we become a community that feels different, looks different, and actually is different?