21 Connect: Day 18 – The Value of Silence

It comes as no surprise that the Bible regularly addresses our need for silence and solitude. Let all that I am wait quietly before God,for my hope is in him.He alone is my rock and my salvation,my fortress where I will not be shaken. Psalm 62:5-6 Perhaps the most consistent role model for the need for solitude and silence was Jesus. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesusgot up, left the house and went off to a solitary place,where he prayed. Mark 1:3-5, NIV Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16, NIV Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent thenight praying to God. When morning came, he calledhis disciples to him and chose twelve of them. Luke 6:12-13, NIV Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and makehim king by force, withdrew again to a mountainby himself. John 6:15, NIV Jesus understood the need to recenter and reconnect with the
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Maggie’s Favorite Chapter

Here is a free preview of Chapter 21 in Waking Up Slowly. You can get an idea of how you can use these short chapters as daily devotionals to connect more fully to God, yourself, and one another. Maggie and I hope you enjoy! SOUNDS OF SILENCE Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God. Ralph Waldo Emerson I love to watch Maggie when she is overseeing her backyard domain. Sometimes she goes to the fence and lets out a couple of deep-throated barks to let some perceived threat know that she is on duty. Or she patrols every inch of the yard, sniffing as if it is her first and not her one-thousandth time to do this. Sometimes she stops to growl at a feral cat behind the fence. But the routine I love most is when she lies in the yard with head high, surveying her kingdom in silence. She is completely dialed in,
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