“Thin silence”. The noise of day to day life easily drowns out the voice of God calling me. I want to hear it, but it’s tenuous and crushed by to do lists, email and jeep websites. I think one of the reasons I am drawn to the ministry is the opportunity to make God the focal point of my daily activities. I’m sure Bill would argue otherwise and tell me that even as a minister, there’s more than enough distractions to keep the whisper of God’s voice away.
Well, what I’ve discovered in ministry is that ministry itself becomes a seduction drowning out that whisper of God. It seems like that shouldn’t be possible, but it’s oh so easy to confuse doing the work of God with having a relationship with God… The one is no substitute for the other.
Of course we wouldn’t get into ministry if we didn’t already have a relationship with God, but ministry can be just as big a “ruiner” of relationships with God as jeep websites and other things that we let distract us from what’s most important…
Also, I think what gets me in this book is the very concept of the title “Dangerous Wonder” that reminds me that to know God for who he really is–at least in whatever capacity I can–is to constantly be in wonder that will pull me closer to this God, who, as Lewis put so well in the Chronicles of Narnia, is never safe.
To quote a sermon I heard a few years ago, “We should all be wearing crash helmets, people! This Gospel-telling is a dangerous business we’re engaged in here!”
I wish I could remember which of the several supply priests we had that year delivered that line…
In response to Suzanne - the crash helment quote is a good one. It comes from Anne Dillard’s book, “Teaching a Stone to Talk.” That book is definitely worth a read at least once a year.
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“Thin silence”. The noise of day to day life easily drowns out the voice of God calling me. I want to hear it, but it’s tenuous and crushed by to do lists, email and jeep websites. I think one of the reasons I am drawn to the ministry is the opportunity to make God the focal point of my daily activities. I’m sure Bill would argue otherwise and tell me that even as a minister, there’s more than enough distractions to keep the whisper of God’s voice away.
Well, what I’ve discovered in ministry is that ministry itself becomes a seduction drowning out that whisper of God. It seems like that shouldn’t be possible, but it’s oh so easy to confuse doing the work of God with having a relationship with God… The one is no substitute for the other.
Of course we wouldn’t get into ministry if we didn’t already have a relationship with God, but ministry can be just as big a “ruiner” of relationships with God as jeep websites and other things that we let distract us from what’s most important…
Also, I think what gets me in this book is the very concept of the title “Dangerous Wonder” that reminds me that to know God for who he really is–at least in whatever capacity I can–is to constantly be in wonder that will pull me closer to this God, who, as Lewis put so well in the Chronicles of Narnia, is never safe.
But he is good.
To quote a sermon I heard a few years ago, “We should all be wearing crash helmets, people! This Gospel-telling is a dangerous business we’re engaged in here!”
I wish I could remember which of the several supply priests we had that year delivered that line…
In response to Suzanne - the crash helment quote is a good one. It comes from Anne Dillard’s book, “Teaching a Stone to Talk.” That book is definitely worth a read at least once a year.
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