This Sunday, January 31 is Serve Austin Sunday. We will be joining with other churches from the Restore Austin network to serve needs around the city. Our church community will be helping to host a grillout downtown to feed hundreds from the homeless community in downtown Austin. We’ll be at 7th and Neches from 4-6pm. If you’d like to caravan or carpool from North Austin, meet at the Chandler’s house at 3:30pm.
Last Sunday evening, we spent some time in silence reflecting on some quotes on…silence. Here they are, for further reflection.
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When we sit quietly in God’s presence, the sediment that is swirling in our souls begins to settle. We don’t have to do anything but show up and trust the spiritual law of gravity that says, Be still, and the knowing will come.
–Ruth Haley Barton
Silence is the discipline that helps us to go beyond the entertainment quality of our lives.
–Henri Nouwen
So if we really intend to submit our bodies as living sacrifices to God, our first step well might be to start getting enough sleep. Sleep is a good first use of solitude and silence. It is also a good indicator of how thoroughly we trust in God.
–Dallas Willard
The drama of silence is that it is the stage where God shows up more frequently than in the bustle of our busyness.
–Dan Allender
People listened to me expectantly,
waiting in silence for my counsel.
After I had spoken, they spoke no more;
my words fell gently on their ears.
They waited for me as for showers
and drank in my words as the spring rain.
–God
One of the most sobering things I learned as I listened to my exhaustion and allowed God to minister to me is that when I am dangerously tired I can be very, very busy and look very, very important but be unable to hear the quiet, sure voice of the One who calls me the beloved.
–Ruth Haley Barton
