...And 4 Weeks Later

On Saturday I managed a decent amount of the day fasting and attempting to power down my thoughts and make more room for God. Then I started feeling pretty rough. A fortnight ago I wrote that I got sick again. Another 2 weeks later, I realise it's more accurate to say I'm not sick again, I just haven't gotten totally well yet. So that brought my day of fasting to an end. However it also brought my Sunday plans to an end and led to a self-imposed, 24-hour silence. Whilst my vow of silence was for medical purposes, I think I can say, this led me to some more quiet reflection and prayer on Sunday. 

I've spent the start of this week trying not to get frustrated about the fact that something in my body is not quite right, despite the fact that I'm being very well-behaved, following all the doctor's orders and trying my best to sort it out. Yet I stumbled across a little insight when a colleague said to me: "Sometimes, we're just forced to be quiet." A little light flickered on somewhere in my head and I realised that God doesn't just want to speak to me or teach me new things when I have quiet time scheduled in the diary. He wants to do this through my everyday experiences too. This is one of those things that seems pretty obvious when I take a minute to stop and think but I needed a little push to get that this week.

I know that taking days out is really important. Partly because it takes me more than a couple of hours to make any significant steps in bringing my thoughts to something you could describe as quiet. And as Lent draws to a close, I'm thinking about how I can continue this over the rest of the year. But for this week, my note-to-self is remembering to listen out in the everyday too. As I think about the events of Easter and all of Jesus' ministry leading up to his death and resurrection, I realise he was the perfect example for this: hearing God's voice through the time he devoted to private prayer and yet also above all of the noise and tumult of his public life. Maybe the two go together.