Apr | 03 | These are Hard Ribs

Key Word:- PEACE

Title:- These are Hard Ribs

Psalm 46:10a Be still, and know that I am God;

Welsh poet R.S. Thomas in his poem ‘In a Church’ sums up our often shared, Twentieth Century experience of silence.

“Often I try
To analyze the quality of its silences.
Is this where God hides
From my searching? I have stopped to listen,
After the few people have gone
To the air recomposing itself
For vigil. It has waited like this
Since the stones grouped themselves about it.
These are hard ribs
Of a body that our prayers have failed
To animate. Shadows advance
From their corners to take possession
Of places that light held
For an hour. The bats resume
Their business. The uneasiness of the pews
Ceases.
There is no other sound
In the darkness but the sound of a man
Breathing, testing his faith
On emptiness, nailing his questions
One by one to an untenanted cross.”

Friends, we are rarely ever alone in our silences are we? Bills, forgotten words, jobs, haste, hurry, desire, appetite, fidgets, fears, and fatigue, all sit noisily with us in our attempts at quietude. The only thing to do then, is to listen to their shouts until they die away in the distance of our thoughts. After their noisy and reluctant departure we often hear that which we fear nearly most of all; our own true voice. Maybe still a child, weeping, chiding us with neglect, longing to be listened to at last and pleading for release. Maybe a man ashamed of who he is, maybe a woman full of hate and bad words toward herself, maybe a warrior who calls himself a coward, maybe…….well you get my picture. It takes both time and silence to acquaint ourselves with ourselves doesn’t it?When we allow the louder noises to depart and the real voice of our self to speak, then maybe it will be then, in the eventual gentled and loving stillness (for it is amazing how quiet it becomes once our voices actually get a chance to finally be listened to) that then He whom our soul loves and longs for, finally is also heard speaking to us! Maybe then at last, we shall truly begin to listen. So please, come and “ Speak Lord in the stillness, while we wait on Thee, hushed our hearts to listen, in expectancy.”

Listen: - …..and after the fire a still small voice. 1 Kings 19:12-13

Pray: - Lord, help me not fear the silence, and the eternal voices it contains. Amen and amen!