Finding Joy In Silence

To continue our theme on joy, I have felt the Lord impressing on my heart the importance of cultivating that joy. If the source of our joy is to be God, than in risk of overstating the obvious, we need more of God. How then can I accomplish that? Well, God has been showing me that, like Mary, I need to come and sit before his feet.

In Roberto Rivera y Carlo's article on Boundless.org titled "Into Great Silence" he talks about the film that features the Carthusian monks who live most of their lives praying, studying and working in silence. The result of this purposeful silence is a joy in knowing that "God is" and knowing His goodness in a way that few of us can even imagine. Here's an excerpt from his article:

*The product of what the Carthusians acknowledge is a difficult rule that few can follow is a "joyful penitence" spent in an "everlasting prayer" where the monk (or nun: there are Carthusian nuns) can, in the midst of solitude and stillness, know that "God is" and know His goodness in a way that few of us can even imagine...
What drives their joyful penitence isn't misanthropy or fear but the conviction that if God is to be found, if He is to be truly known, He must be pursued wholeheartedly — a conviction Gröning drives home by inserting text cards with verses such as "Anyone who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). A big part of this wholehearted pursuit is putting oneself in a position where you can hear God who, as the passage from 1 Kings tells us, will not (and should not) turn the volume up to compete with the noise generated by a world turning out of control. The Hebrew kol d'mama daka, translated as "still small voice," can also be translated "still silent voice" or, my favorite: "the voice of eloquent silence." *

Carlo goes on to speak about the importance of stillness and silence in our lives and recalls Jesus' own discipline of withdrawing to secluded places. He says that if Jesus knew the need to find a "quiet" place, how much more are we in need of that? Now I'm not saying that I think everyone needs to become monks or nuns to accomplish this, but my hearts prayer is to embrace the verse: "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

The more I get alone
The more I see I need to get alone more, more
Cause just when I think that I'm alone
Your Spirit calls out to me
And even silence has a song
Cause that's when you come
Sing over me

Oh this world, it falls around me
And flutters all it's beauty in my eyes
But let me choose the solitude
Simplicity has always simply changed my life
Cause even stillness makes me move
Cause that's when my heart
Learns to dance with you

Still, let me be still
Let me be OK
With the quiet in my heart
Still, I want to be still
I'm so quick to move
Instead of listening to you
Shut my mouth
Crush my pride
Give me the tears
Of a broken life,
Still
I'm your child
Tame my heart
Obedience
To me impart
Still

"O Lord, forgive my failure to be still and know that You are God. Help me become less enamored with noise and love silence more in order to know You better. And in knowing You better, my joy will be secured in the only place that it can last. Let me remember that You can move in silence and that's when my heart learns to dance with You. "And those who know your name put their trust in you,for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:10 "

-Lana-