J-O-Y

Kajijis,
It doesn’t get much more simplistic than J-O-Y. Those of us who grew up in Sunday School understand this anagram to mean Jesus first, Others second, You third. Wow, what a way to put us on the bottom, huh? But let me point out that without “You” in the word JOY, we’re left with just J-O, and for some reason, it just doesn’t leave us with the same feeling as JOY. You are an integral part of the equation, and if all you’re doing is serving Jesus and Others, you’re in danger of dropping off the end of a very basic yet important word, and our service to Jesus and others becomes drudgery. We seem to have a pretty good picture of what it means to serve Jesus and to serve others, but to serve ourselves? What does that look like?

“Solitude seeks to silence a noisy world. But it is also a tool to quiet our souls, which are often wracked by their own inner turmoil, tensions, and troubles.
…solitude is a way of recharging [our] spiritual batteries for deeper, more effective, and more selfless service to the world and others.” John Michael Talbot wrote these words in The Lessons of St. Francis. He went on to say, “I find that when I’m grounded in silence and prayer, the work I do becomes efficient, energized, and empowered by God’s spirit. The more I devote my time to prayer, the more I get done in my periods of activity. But if I focus on spending my time in activity, I quickly realize that I’m getting little done.” I don’t know about you, but I feel like most of the focus in my daily life is on activity – how much can I get done today? What is on my calendar? What are others expecting of me today? What are others demanding of me? But how many moments throughout the day do we take the time to meditate, focus on God, take a breath, say a prayer? Even better, are we ever able to steal away to our most comfortable chair or lie on our bed and just close our eyes and stay silent (without falling asleep, I might add)? I think the question could be, would you even do this if you had the opportunity? “We seem so frightened today of being alone that we never let it happen… We choke the space with continuous music, chatter, and companionship to which we do not even listen. It is simply there to fill the vacuum. When the noise stops there is no inner music to take its place.”1 What does your inner music sound like? Do you even know? When was the last time you listened to it? If it’s been awhile, ask yourself why – are you afraid of what your music sounds like? Not a tune you would sing along with? A little off-tune maybe? Complete silence? Matters of the heart rank highest on God’s radar, and if we are too busy to know where our heart lies, we’re in deep trouble.

Not all men are called to be hermits, but all men need enough silence and solitude in their lives to enable the deep inner voice of their own true self to be heard at least occasionally.
- Thomas Merton

“I wonder if many of the world’s most avid noise makers and consumers of noise aren’t actually afraid of what they would find deep down inside if they ever got alone in silence with themselves and with God. Don’t run from silence. Accept God’s gracious invitation to the joys of solitude. Don’t fill your days with noxious noise, or your nights with a constant stream of unfunny sitcoms, boring adventure flicks, or prefabricated pop music. I invite you to step into the calm, cool water of silence and see God there. Or as Henri Nouwen has written, ‘To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.’”2

Last week we met at Jill’s where we had delicious chocolate muffins, coffee and great conversation. Thanks so much for hosting, Jill!! In fact, we got to talking intensely about other things and never got around to our original topic of discussion: our ideal home environment. So those of you who were interested in the topic, you’re in luck as we’ll discuss the question this week. We’ll talk about how our home environment affects our “inner music”. Hope to see you there!

Blessings,
Crystal

1 Anne Morrow Lindbergh
2 The Lessons of St. Francis: How to Bring Simplicity and Spirituality into Your Daily Life by John Michael Talbot with Steve Rabey