4Ü #246
Silence Revisited
3 August 2006
- WASSUP - The ultimate in powerlessness
- INSIGHT OUT - Silence revisited
- OUTSIGHT IN - Without answers
- SEE YA SUNDAY - Super Kids Live
- LAST WORD - Listen for the echo
WASSUP - The ultimate in powerlessness
Having just completed a nine week series on prayer, I've come up with my personal definition of prayer, "the ultimate in powerlessness." This may rub many of you up the wrong way, but hear me out. We do not pray for more power (even though that is available to us), we pray that we may know of our powerlessness. It is only then that we have the faintest possibility of discovering just how powerful God really is!
INSIGHT OUT - Silence revisited
Today the space between us was awkward
There was unease in your voice
Your eyes looked with distance, yet had a penetrating glare
Arms folded you lean backwards as if about to speak.
Anticipating a pause, immediately I go on attack
"Silence,
You are insatiable
I give you a little, you want the lot
You flood me with fears and even my shadows come to life
You mess with my mind, a combination of myth and fairy dust
You are demanding, yet you will not raise your voice to be heard
You accuse and betray me without even a word
I can't stand listening to you anymore!
Can I trust you?
Are you really my friend?"
Your reply,
A faint smile
And as always in silence.
I'm now running for cover as I pick up my words
But work of Silence had been done
And together
as we sat, the space between us became sacred.
OUTSIGHT IN - Without answers
Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with the answers and then motivating people to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights.
Jim Collins Good to Great 2001 p 75
Are you following answers or being led by a question / quest?
Why is humility required for good questions?
Whose vision is it anyway?
SEE YA SUNDAY - Super Kids Live
This Sunday morning - Super Kids Live 8.30am & 10.30am
Bread & Wine - 9.45am - Weekly Communion
Starting Next Sunday evening:
The St Columba Institute of Life and Faith
Recovery from Spiritual Abuse - this is a short three week course that looks at the cause and cure of spiritual abuse.
Starting next Sunday morning:
A new series Hope in hard times
This series will explore some tough issues that in one way or another touch all our lives; death, disaster, depression and divorce. While the topics in themselves look a bit depressing, the messages will be informative, provocative, practical and inspirational. If you know anyone one who needs some hope in the midst of hard times, invite then to come along.
Thanks for this time to chat.
Andrew
St Columba
Where Life and Faith Meet
andrew.norton@stcolumba.org.nz
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LAST WORD- Listen for the echo
To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order to become its echo I have, in a way, to silence it. I bring to this incessant speech the decisiveness, the authority of my own silence.
Maurice Blanchot