SSU October 22, 2008

One of the really enjoyable things for me when I come to SSU is that I can walk wherever I go: to school, to church, to the grocery store, to the local pizza dive. People often offer me rides which I cheerfully decline. There is something about walking that translates into a slower pace of life. I can literally feel my thoughts slowing and my emotions calming. That would be a marked contrast to my thoughts racing and my emotions raging. I'm convinced we would be in better emotional shape as a society if walking was our major means of getting around.

Meister Eckhard, a fourteenth century mystic, said, "Nothing resembles the language of God so much as silence." We live in a world of sensory overload. Mostly it is by choice that we do. All of the electronic devices which have become a staple of life have an off switch. We could do a great deal to improve our lives by availing ourselves of that button from time to time.

In what way is silence the language of God? One answer to that question might be that it is in our silence that the voice of God is heard. Silence is not the equivalent of the absence of communication. Someone has observed that the language of our deepest intimacy is often unspoken. Another answer to that question could be that it is often what is not said that communicates the loudest.

With that in mind, I'll keep this post short.

Quote of the Day

"A man who has truly mastered the utterances of Jesus will also be able to apprehend His silence, and thus reach full spiritual maturity, so that his own words have the force of actions and his silences the significance of speech." Ignatius Epistle to the Ephesians 2nd Century AD