Internal Conversation and Quiet Moments
Phil Monroe asks about how we deal with the
internal convesation that goes on in our minds, especially in quiet moments.
I'll respond with a few thoughts borrowed from John Owen's Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded. This is a wonderful work on what the believer's internal conversation should be aimed toward, but I warn you—I must have started reading it 20 times over the last 30 years, and never “was allowed” to get more than 20 pages into it—I surely would have wasted it.
- Owen asks what our thoughts are, do spiritual thoughts spontaneously arise in us? Yes, there may be some from habit (we hear a sermon, go to a Bible study) or need (“I'm teaching the study tonight?”) or occasion (9/11/2001, for example). But do they ever, do they often come from within? I wrote a post on guests and children when this first hit me.
- Owen specifically asks about the quiet times in our lives, but not the shower. In the late 1600's, those times were when you could not deal with business and occasions of the day: walking and journeying (driving in your car, for example).
I found it disturbing that with the iPod and the satellite radio (not to mention the car DVD player, CD, 8-track, or whatever), we've wiped that time off the map: it is no longer quiet. Someone mentioned an author's reference to that quiet time as the "margins" of our lives, giving space and shape to the rest of our time. For many, it's gone, and gladly.
Posted by ronlusk at
07:19 AM