The practice of silence gives us the opportunity to face our deepest fears and questions, with the express purpose of opening these up to God so he can meet us and lead us into healing. As [Larry Crabb, in Understanding People,] observes,
"Solitude eventually offers a quiet gift of grace, a gift that comes whenever we are able to face ourselves honestly: the gift of compassion for who we are, as we are. As we allow ourselves to be known in solitude, we discover that we are known by love. Beyond the pain of self-discovery there is a love that does not condemn but calls us to itself. This love receives us as we are."
Silence also gives us the chance to habitually release our own agendas and our need to control everything--including God, if we're honest. When we let go, we can open up to what he wants to give. One of the greatest gifts that comes to us in the silence is that we come to understand that we are loved beyond anything we could ever do for God or for anyone else. As we begin to grasp the reality of God's loving presence in moments of silence, we begin to live and to choose from a centered place, a bedrock of settledness that is worth any price we have to pay to find it. --from The Truths That Free Us, by Ruth Haley Barton
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