Sabbath,
one story tells,
he lay dead and buried:
friends out of sight, but women wait
for dawn.
Silence is the word for the day. It’s something from which I often flee. Maybe you do too? I find myself reaching for my smart phone in moments of silence, stillness or emptiness. It’s as if those moments, at home, in the grocery store line, sitting in my parked car, are awkward for me (and for you too maybe). In the silence I can begin to hear other things, that I might not want to. In catching my breath I feel at times like I’m not keeping up. I’m so plugged into to so many things, that I don’t remember that to which I most want to be connected. Today’s scripture poem cry for help in Psalm 31 is trying to express that same feeling (albeit without our 21st century devices)
SCRIPTURE FOR THE DAY
PSALM 31:9-16
Be gracious, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasting with anger,
together with my inner being and my stomach.
For my life is consumed by grief
and my years in groaning;
My strength fails because of my distress
and my bones become weak.
Because of my oppressors I am a disgrace;
to my neighbours, I’m a disaster,
to my acquaintances, a cause for trembling.
seeing me in the street they flee from me.
I am forgotten like one who is dead,
and have become like a broken pot.
For I have heard the whispering of the crowd – terror all around –
in scheming together against me they plot to take my life.
But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, ‘You are my God.’
My days are in your hands;
snatch me from the hand of my enemies and pursuers.
Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.
PRACTICE FOR THE DAY
If you’re up for it, try to “unplug” from your devices, social media, other electronic devices in order to be still, to listen in the stillness. That doesn’t mean you need to just sit on the couch in the lotus position in silence all day, rather it’s an invitation to seek to be truly present in the moments in which you find yourself. At the end of the day journal about, or reflect upon, what you heard in this “stillness.”