Preoccupied

Don’t you just love it when you get past the clouded symptoms and begin to see what might be causing them?
Such is the case with me, in further reading from Brennan Manning’s book, The Signature of Jesus; Father put His finger on a real nerve.
The following is but a quick quote from much more I want to share possibly later, bottom line, this unveiling from within me was and is so liberating.

Rich

“In my personal life the greater part of each year is devoted to writing, thinking, and speaking about God, Jesus, faith, contemplative prayer, the gospel lifestyle, and so forth. It is a curious phenomenon that such noble Christian enterprises distance me from God. (I assume that this is true for all Christian writers, preachers and teachers, as well as songwriters, musicians, and singers). Constantly holding forth about God does not of itself lead to being with God. Writing about God somehow takes me away from directly responding to God in the present moment. Preaching about Jesus somehow clouds my presence to the Reality I am proclaiming. In both situations what is missing is any sense of felt intimacy with God through faith. Yet my beliefs remain vigorous and rooted.”

“Seek first the kingdom of God.” This requires taking time out from family, friends, career, ministry, even ‘doing good’ to enter into the great silence of God.
Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard. Without such silence we will drown in the inner cacophony of dialogues, encounters, meetings, discussions, and conferences where there is much speaking and little listening.”