Prayer: Listening to the Voice of Love

I have a very extensive library – just ask the movers who have moved me over the years.  In shedding with each move, I’ve even given away books; donated spiritual and Christian books to third world organizations who have a difficult time of it getting hold of books to feed the hungry souls who seek to know the Creator.  It has been like parting with best friends, but in letting go I was sharing nurturing that had brought me along the path with another who might be at the very point I was at when I first picked up and read that book.  Despite the shedding, I have four double stacked, three and four shelf book shelves, and still, there is not enough room.

Today as I wondered into the dining area I passed a couple of books that sit alone on top of an end table.  One of these books is Here & Now – Living in the Spiritby Henri J.M. Nouwen.  Opening up the book I note the individual handwritten messages from each of my daughters; the book a gift to me from them Christmas 1994.

Randomly opening the book, I came upon the following passage that I share with you the reader, share it with heartfelt wishes that if you are seeking an answer, are looking for direction, a word or two will be planted in the soil of your heart and grow into a fully blossomed forest of answers and food for your soul.

This particular section speaks of prayer and listening, being in the presence of YHWH/God – just be-in-God’s presence and you will hear the voice of love.

“To pray is to listen to that voice of love.  That is what obedience is all about.  The word ‘obedience’ comes from the Latin word ob-audire, which means to listen with great attentiveness.  Without listening, we become ‘deaf’ to the voice of love.  The Latin word for deaf is surdus.  To be completely deaf is to be absurdus, yes, absurd.  When we no longer pray, no longer listen to the voice of love that speaks to us in the moment, our lives become absurd lives in which we are thrown back and forth between the past and the future.”

Absurd lives; how often in reflecting upon my own life could it be labelled absurd?  Yet had I not lived those moments, I would not have attained the tools that equipped me for the next leg of my journey, the next chapter of this human existence. 

Nothing is ever wasted, is ever for nothing, if we learn from our mistakes or even our successes, and take the gifts and use them for the betterment of ourselves and the world around us.  If our goal, no matter the instrument to be used, is ultimately the universal good of all, we will accomplish, and so much more than we ever expected.

Life is a rose, a sweet fragrant rose and like the rose, life has thorns, much, I dare say like the thorn written of by the apostle Paul in scripture.  His thorn kept him in line, kept him humble and I dare say kept him in remembrance of who it was he served, who it was who is in fact in total control; who it was who is the very breath we breath and the true essence of who we are, in whose image we were created.

So, sharing with you words of love from a gift of love from my daughters, may they inspire you to continue this journey in a light, hope and love that all is indeed well with our souls and that in the Creator’s hands, surrendered in obedience, the plan for your life will unfold in His perfect time. For, you see it is this writer’s absolute belief that the Creator’s timing is perfect, and in fact that what the world deems as the perfect time is usually the exact opposite, the mirror opposite of Truth.  The world says, “You are too old, you are too young,” and the Creator says, “You are just old enough, you are just young enough.”  Everything is as it should be – hold on to that Truth and watch your life blossom.

Christine and Michelle, my darling and beautiful daughters.  I love you and thank you for your gift of love, expressed in a book given to me so many years ago, expressed daily in unspoken communication that my heart softly hears and returns.