{"id":1437,"date":"2024-02-10T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T10:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openspacesofsedona.org\/blog\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2024-02-13T22:00:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T22:00:30","slug":"listening-to-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openspacesofsedona.org\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/02\/10\/listening-to-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cThou hast created us for thyself, and our heart  is not quiet until it rests in Thee.\u201d\n ~ Augustine <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/p><\/span>We live in a world of ubiquitous  \ninformation\u2014the information age and now  AI. Our schedules are overbooked with  more and more responsibilities and  activities. We are over extended. We are  saturated with social media and information overload via our smartphones. We cannot  detach ourselves long enough from our  technologies to listen to what is really going  on deep in our souls. We become anxious  when we experience the least bit of silence.  Silence isn\u2019t a friend to many people. It feels  uncomfortable to be with ourselves in the  silence for any length of time. I am not sure  why, maybe we\u2019re afraid to be with  ourselves in the silence. It can be scary  going beneath the surface of our lives\u2014 there is so much there. So, what do we do?  Without being aware, we reach for our  smartphones, our laptop and start scrolling  for connection, for nuggets of something to  comfort our hearts and we become very  good at drowning the silence with noise.  \n       Maybe the real issue is that we are  under-resourced with opportunities to truly  listen to our lives. To listen at what is going  on inside us. To listen to our feelings.  Augustine said in his Confessions, \u201cI am  scattered.\u201d Do you ever feel scattered? I  feel scattered sometimes\u2014too much  \ninformation, my heart seems troubled and I  am not sure why. Sometimes it feels as  though you are in a fog with too many  doubts and too many voices competing for  the truth, your soul\u2014you feel restless. \n       Augustine also said, \"Our hearts are  restless until they find their rest in thee.\" One way to find rest, one way to remove the  world\u2019s distractions is to take time to listen to your life. I mean truly listen. To take a  quiet moment and sit prayerfully and quietly  with the inner stirrings of your heart before  God. Try to create an intentional space, a  listening space where all the internal chatter  is muted. You may go to a nearby park or  your back patio. Stop. Listen. Notice a bird,  notice a cloud forming or the sound of  children playing. Thank God for eyes that  see and ears that hear. In the presence of  God ask yourself this question: what is the  state of my soul? Welcome everything that  comes and resist nothing. Welcome any  shame, welcome any quilt that may surface.  Our God is amazing. He knows without our  asking where our hearts are. He longs for us  to listen to our lives. And while you are  praying, be attentive to the unforced  rhythms of God\u2019s grace. In the resting, in  the releasing, the Holy Spirit will gently  speak to your heart and you will come away  refreshed\u2014fully known and fully loved by  God. And you will come to know yourself in  a better way, you will learn to be clear and  kind to yourself in this space of grace.  \n       Jesus many times in his life escaped  the crowds, the needs and the noise of the  world around him and found a quiet place.  In that space, Jesus rested. Jesus caught  his breath. He let go. And he released  himself to his Father. Letting go, resting and  releasing ourselves to the Father, Son and  Holy Spirit is both life-giving and what our  souls truly long for the most.  \n       So, I pray that you will take a quiet  moment very soon to listen to your life, let  your life speak to you\u2014all of it. For your  soul so longs to be heard. Amen. \n
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