Out Our Way: Listen - Psalm 46:10

Out our way, solitude is not that hard to find. Even in town, there are places of quiet - and The Bear Paws are just down the road. When Charley and I rode on the Tiger Ridge together we didn't do much talking - and except for the meadowlarks and the wind, there wasn't much noise either. No traffic, no loud music, no machinery. Just silence. It was sort of peaceful.

When I pray, I find I prefer silence and solitude. I am too easily distracted and have what a writer called "a grasshopper mind" - that is, my thoughts jump about and seldom stay in one place. I skim the surface in my rushing along but only go deep when I slow down, take time and still my heart. The Psalm reminds us "Be still and know that I am God"

 I think of the prophet Elijah. Here was a man of God whom even the evil King Ahab feared. He boldly denounced the nation of Israel for forgetting the Lord and accepting paganism as the new norm. He challenged the wicked king, Ahab - and his pagan wife Jezebel. He even challenged the mighty pagan priests with the showdown on Mount Carmel [1 Kings 18] which led to their destruction when the people finally understood that they had been fooled and duped by them.

Yet, for all his strength and faith, Elijah lost his nerve when he forgot God. The secular powers refused to accept Elijah's message and sought to destroy him. And Elijah ran. He took off for the Sinai desert and hid in the cave of Moses on Mount Sinai. And there the Lord spoke to Elijah.

"What are you doing here, Elijah? Why did you run away?" And Elijah began his pity party and complaining to the Lord about how nobody listend, nobody cared, and he was tired of it all.

Then God had him come out of the cave. There was a great stormy wind and then a mighty earthquake and then a great fire. These mighty forces of nature all appeared before Elijah - but none of them were God. For they were still merely aspects of creation and God is the Creator. And then came the stillness - the silence - and in the silence Elijah found God.

How does that old hymn go, "Take time to be holy"? Wow, that is a lesson I still have trouble remembering. Like Elijah, I come to God with my complaints and my concerns, to tell Him what is on my mind - but seldom to listen. I want Him to know my will, but don't seek to discover what His is.

When I read about the great men and women of faith I discover that all of them put prayer and quiet listening first. Like Christ, they went away by themselves to spend time in silence with the Father. They went deep.

The cure for the grasshopper mind in prayer is to learn to listen and be still and know God. It is a lesson I am still trying to learn, but God is patient and by His grace, one day I may actually learn to shut up and listen.

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Old Doc and John Bruington hope others are helped by these reflections. We are all in this together - and when it comes to the faith journey, we are all beginners.