waiting for God to Act/ Brian zahnd

waiting for God to act

https://brianzahnd.com/2017/12/watingforgodtoact2/

... waiting is essential.

 For it’s in the waiting that our soul grows quiet, Contemplative, cultivates a capacity for awareness, 

by which we can discern what God is doing when he does act.

The ways of God are predominantly 

small and quiet. The ways of God are about as loud as seed falling on the ground or bread rising in an oven. 

more often found in 

trickling tears and 

whispered prayers. 

We want God to do a big thing, while God is planning to do a small thing

We are in a hurry. 

God is not. We want God 

to act fast, but Godspeed is almost always slow.

we are not so much waiting for God 

to act as we are waiting to become contemplative enough to discern 

what God is doing. 

God is always acting, because God is always loving his creation.

when we are consumed by anger, harried by anxiety, driven by impatience, we are blind and deaf to what God is actually doing in present moment.

it was pagan stargazers and peasant shepherds who discerned what God was doing. They were not the experts and they were not the reactionaries at the loud center of religious noise; they were 

quiet people on the silent edges of contemplative thought.

Gazing at stars 

and keeping watch by night

 are profound metaphors for

 the contemplative life

They were the ones who discerned what God was doing in the seemingly ordinary event of a young 

woman giving birth in an 

out of the way place.

God is always acting because God is always loving the world and always giving birth to something

become quiet enough and contemplative enough to discern what God is doing in the obscure and forgotten corners, far from the corridors of power or wherever you think the action is.

we want God to act in Washington D.C., but God first acts in the quiet corner of your own living room. God is about to act in your life and in our world. But if you want to discern the actions of God you must learn to first wait in quiet contemplation. 

Before you can become 

an activist, you must 

first become a 

contemplative

otherwise you’ll just be a re-activist. And re-activists merely recycle anger and keep the world an angry place. Jesus was a contemplative activist, but never a re-activist.

Comments BrianZahnd.com

"For contemplation is naught else than a secret, peaceful

 and loving infusion from God, which, if it be permitted,.. 

enkindles the soul with the spirit of love."

 St John of The Cross.

thank you for this Brian:

//I would suggest that we are not so much waiting for

 God to act as we are waiting. to become contemplative enough to discern what God is doing...

...when we are consumed by anger, harried by anxiety, and driven by impatience, we are blind and deaf to 

what God is actually doing in the present moment...

...it was pagan stargazers and peasant shepherds who discerned what God was doing. They were not the experts and they were not the reactionaries at the loud center of religious noise; they were quiet people on the silent edges of contemplative thought...

...Waiting for God to act is actually waiting for your soul to become quiet enough and contemplative enough to discern what God is doing in the obscure and forgotten corners, far from the corridors of power or wherever you think the action is...

...Before you can become an activist, you must first become a contemplative; otherwise you’ll just be a re-activist. And re-activists merely recycle anger and keep the world an angry place. Jesus was a contemplative activist, but never a re-activist...//

it has crossed my mind that the focus of most of the blogs I follow recycle anger and resentment regarding the leadership of fundamentalist evangelicals, the Democratic / Republican party and POTUS in particular. I notice that a lot of the people's comments reveal that they are actively engaged in an addiction to resentment. That isn't to say that there's a lot to be angry about!! Recently I've received several indications from several directions, that I consider reliable, first and foremost of which is my own connection to the higher power, that I am spending far too much time and precious attention on such a sterile choice that oppresses me. I've been contemplating 23rd psalm to help me come unglued and refocus my thoughts on how God is in my life and the path he is showing me. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his namesake has been something in the sequence that I have been resisting. Allowing God to guide, I think, is to relinquish my control. I resist this!! And yet if I don't then I am on my own and I have a history of being unreliable!!

knock, if you seek, ...

Waiting on God, without 

asking,and God will wait on you