Day By Day #24

Day by Day #24

MORNING/MIDDAY OFFICE

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: Job 2:11; 42:7–8

When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. . . .

After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”

Devotional

The book of Job is not merely a book about undeserved suffering. It is also a book about friends who don’t listen. Job’s friends started off well enough by being silent, and sitting with Job for seven days. But then they started talking—a lot. And that’s when they got into trouble. In fact, not only did they not listen, but they went on jabbering for thirty-four chapters. They gave bad counsel, wrongly quoted Scripture, and put words in God’s mouth.

Author Eugene Peterson aptly summarizes the impact of friends like Job’s:

The moment we find ourselves in trouble of any kind . . . people start showing up telling us exactly what is wrong with us and what we must do to get better. . . .

It all sounds so hopeful. But then we begin to wonder, “Why is it that for all their apparent compassion we feel worse instead of better when they’ve said their piece?”

The book of Job is not only a witness to the dignity of suffering and God’s presence in our suffering but is also our primary biblical protest against religion that has been reduced to explanations or “answers.”^a

More often than not, most of us err on the side of speaking too much. And that’s when we get into trouble. The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us, “[There is] a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). The key is to discern the difference.

Question to Consider

With whom might God be inviting you to be a more humble, attentive listener today?

Prayer

Lord, free me from the need to “say something,” especially when I just want to appear right or wise or impressive. Teach me to be comfortable with the powerlessness I often feel when I listen without providing answers. Protect me from foolishly talking too much, and help me become a better lover of others. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

MIDDAY/EVENING OFFICE

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 32:10–11

            In a desert land he found him,

               in a barren and howling waste.

            He shielded him and cared for him;

               he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

            like an eagle that stirs up its nest

               and hovers over its young,

            that spreads its wings to catch them

               and carries them aloft.

Devotional

In this beautiful passage, God compares himself to a mother eagle who stirs up her eaglets to leave the nest in order to fly. Just as the mother eagle protects and supports her young by hovering beneath them with her wings, so God flies beneath us with his powerful wings to catch and carry us.

When author and educator Parker Palmer describes the Quaker process of a creating a safe space for individuals to get “clearness” about where God’s Spirit might be leading them, he compares it to holding that person like a small bird in the palm of our hands. He notes, however, that there are great temptations for us as listeners.

I suggest, we are to hold the soul of the focus person as if we were holding a small bird in the palms of our two hands.

As we do so, we are likely to experience three temptations, and it is important that we resist all of them:

        •     After a while, our hands may start to close around the bird, wanting to take this creature apart and find out what makes it tick. Resist this temptation. . . .

        •     As the time goes by, our arms may begin to tire, and we may find ourselves tempted to lay the bird down: attention flags, the mind wanders. . . . We must resist this temptation too. A bird is light, and a soul is even lighter. . . .

        •     Toward the end of the process . . . we may find our cupped hands making a subtle but persistent upward motion, encouraging the bird to fly: . . . “Aren’t you ready to take off, to act on what you now know?” Resist this temptation too. This bird will fly when it is ready, and we cannot possibly know when that will be.^b

When listening, we often feel a great temptation to rush God’s process or manipulate outcomes. We need to remember that it is God—not us—who is responsible for nudging his children out of the nest. The timing is up to him. Our role is to love, to listen, and to cooperate with what his Spirit is doing in the life of the person we are listening to.

Question to Consider

As you anticipate spending time with someone today, what difference might it make in your ability to listen well if you could imagine holding that person like a small bird in the palm of your hands?

Prayer

Father, thank you that you are a God who always listens to me. Help me to trust you as I listen to others, holding them gently—not rushing to fix them, save them, or hurry them along their journey with you. Help me to trust your timetable and your work in their lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

^a Eugene H. Peterson, “Introduction to Job,” The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002), 633–34.

^b Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2004), 146. Over 300 years ago, the Quakers developed an intentional discernment practice they called a “clearness committee.” I have learned a great deal about this listening practice over the years from Parker Palmer’s organization, the Center for Courage and Renewal. For additional information about the center and clearness committees, visit www.couragerenewal.org.