Silence and Slowing
I wake up at 4:30am. By 4:45 I’m out the door, walking the dog, listening to the previous week’s prayer meeting’s prayers on my phone. When I’m in the shower I’m listening to podcasts, probably RC Sproul or more recently NT Wright. On the way to work I listen to the gospels on the car radio from my phone. Before 8am, I’ve already listened to three different kinds of media, had a walk, a shower, prayer time, Bible reading, and school text book reading. I can pack a morning pretty good.
And so this morning, as I read about the spiritual discipline of slowing down, and of silence, I wonder. This idea isn’t practiced by me. I’m busy. I realize I’m too busy. I’ve tried to say “no” to things over the past few years, but it seems even though I’m saying “no,” the calendar just fills up.
I have to write a paper for my spiritual transformation class. It’s a pretty open ended paper. The professor is very flexible. He’s so open it’s almost scary; how do I write a 15 page paper on “spiritual transformation” in general? I’ve got to whittle it down somehow. And right now I think I’ll try some spiritual disciplines I don’t normally practice, and write about my results. I already have an idea for my first shot at silence/solitude.