few words

"When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer." ~Luke 23:8 NIV

"One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that is makes us feel so helpless. We are so accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control? ...Silence is intimately related to trust.

The tongue is our most powerful weapon of manipulation. A frantic stream of words flows from us because we are in a constant process of adjusting our public image. We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us, so we talk in order to straighten out their understanding...One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let our justification rest entirely with God...Bonhoeffer wrote, 'Real silence, real stillness, really holding one's tongue comes only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness.'

It's important to observe ourselves to see how often our speech is a frantic attempt to explain and justify our actions. Experiment with doing deeds without any words of explanation...Try to allow God to be your justifier.

Discipline yourself so that your words are few and full. Become known as a person who has something to say when you speak. Maintain plain speech. Do what you say you will do. 'It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay' (Eccl 5:5) When our tongue is under our authority, the words of Bonhoeffer become true of us: 'Much that is unnecessary remains unsaid. But the essential and the helpful thing can be said in a few words.' ~from Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

a house divided

"For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it..." ~from Romans 7

"We are at odds with ourselves, a house divided. Because we are stamped with the image of God, we long for the good, the true, the beautiful. Because we live in a good world gone bad, we hanker after the distortions of God's good creation. We try by sheer willpower to seek the good, but we fail, always fail, because the will is in conflict with itself and is in need of redemption. Merely to think good thoughts or to desire good things is not enough. We need the transforming power of Jesus Christ alive and present among us. Then our conflicting wills can come under the rule of the Divine Arbitrator." ~Richard Foster

the ordinary

"Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things, as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value." ~Teihard de Chardin


This is an important word, for we tend to live in a kind of inner apartheid. We segregate out a small corner of pious activities and then we can make no spiritual sense out of the rest of our lives. The scandal of Christianity in our day is the heresy of a five percent spirituality. The untheatrical regularity of the ordinary reminds us that here is where we will find God...and build a history with God...in the common, ordinary, daily, mundane, routine, uneventful tasks of life. ~Richard Foster

sprout

"In our day, heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-intoxicated, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of Go. It has happened before. It can happen again...

Such a people will not emerge until there is among us a deeper, more profound experience of an Emmanuel of the Spirit--God with us, a knowledge that in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has come to guide His people Himself...an experience of His leading that is as definite and as immediate as the cloud by day and fire by night."

~Richard Foster

solitude

"Be still, and know that I am God..."

~Psalms 46:10 [NIV]

"Solitude is one of the deepest disciplines of the spiritual life because it crucifies our need for importance and prominence. Everyone--including ourselves at first--will see our solitude as a waste of good time. We are removed from 'where the action is.' That, of course, is exactly what we need. In silence and solitude God slowly but surely frees us from our egomania.

In time we come to see that the really important action occurs in solitude. Once we have experienced God at work in our soul, all the blare and attention of the world seems like a distant and fragmentary echo. Only then are we able to enter the hustle and bustle of today's machine civilization with perspective and freedom."

~Richard J. Foster