Discern Part 4

 

One final process that I would like to share with you this week on discernment.  This process is less about words and more about silence, quieting, breathing and being. 

 

Start by focusing on your breath: breathe in for four counts, hold for six counts, and exhale for eight counts.  Do this at your own pace.  I recommend doing these seven to twelve times until you feel your pulse slowing down.

 

Say your question out loud slowly three times.  This may feel a bit awkward, but you are speaking your question so you can hear yourself.  I believe my question sounds different when I hear it with my own ears than when it is closed off in my mind.

 

Say, “Speak, God, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10).  Sit in quiet for three to five minutes.  If your mind starts to wander, as mine does, softly and gently say, “Speak, God, for your servant is listening”.  You may have to say that twenty times during the quiet, but you are waking yourself up to the fact that silence is God’s first language.  You are paying attention to the Spirit surfing over the chaos of the questions that crash like waves in your soul. 

 

Slowly breathe in again, hold, and release.

 

Write down how the experience felt and any new insights.  Maybe it felt awkward or frustrating because God didn’t send you a neon sign or text message.  Maybe you felt uneasy with how the question is being spoken.  There is no grade from God; we are simply inviting the sacred to sit with us in the mysterious unfolding of our lives.  May this prayer practice help center you in our Creator who is painting on the canvas of your life right here and now. Amen.