Make us brave

Being in lock down has hit people in many different ways.  Some are locked down in full households which bring their own problems.  At our Zoom prayer time yesterday one person asked that we pray that there might be peace in such homes - and we knew what he meant!  But someone else in the group is facing solitude as never before with difficulties in working at home and much loneliness. 

This enforced time means solitude for some of us as never before.  It is so easy to say Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God and then measure our stillness in seconds only.  Being personal I have never been very good at stillness.  My father, who was a pastor, made solitude and stillness basic to his prayer life and I know he rather disapproved of my sometimes frantic lifestyle (though he was kind about it!).

Today's prayer from Monica Furlong asks that we be brave to try more silence.  I haven't thought before that bravery was needed but when I pray this through slowly I realize why it is an appropriate word.

Holy Spirit, why are we so afraid of silence? Why do we flll our lives with talk, and people, and work, and action,until we feel guilty if we sit still and do nothing?  Because we do not want to hear God, who often speaks through dullness, emptiness, stillness, loneliness. Make us brave enough to try.

In this enforced time may we hear God in fresh ways?