Desert by Hamed Saber

One of the hardest experiences for believers who rely on God’s guidance–if not the hardest–is the periods when God is silent. Generally I respond to the silence with fear. I think I learned a long time ago that if I panic surely the God of my understanding will “rescue” me from myself. Needless to say, God can’t be manipulated. So, after a period of expending useless energy, I settle down for the long wait.

GotQuestions.org has a great post about recognizing the voice of God. For me, when I’m sure it is God’s guidance leading me, one of the factors with the solution is that everything is worked out and not by me. Because it is hard for me to remember to keep myself in a positive direction, I have typed out a cheat sheet of things to remember when God’s guidance doesn’t seem to be prevalent.

Whosoever.org reminds us to first check our own motives. Is God silent or are we holding on to a particular outcome that may not be the right answer for us?

One of the main things that I remind myself is that God is a God of peace. If I am anxious or upset, I won’t be able to hear God’s whispering or His quiet urgings. Also, as Verla Gillmor suggests, this may be a period when God has taken His hands off our”bike” so that we can learn to ride with less guidance. Verla suggests that we receive four opportunities during these periods: (1) solitude, (2) surrender, (3) scripture memorization, and (4) authenticity and community.

Some more readings about when God is silent:

Sermon: “When God is Silent”

Why are there times when God seems silent/absent in a believer’s life?

When God is silent: How to hear God when He seems far away

When God is silent

What to you do when you can’t hear God?

When God is silent

Feed Me Light by kevindooley

Having grownup in a home controlled by alcoholism, I was able to see my addiction very early into the disease. Thanksgiving,  1976, I told my family that I thought I was an alcoholic. I fully expected everyone to disagree with me because I had not had any outward signs. But, my mother said that she had been afraid of that. So I was stuck with the admission and being the “perfect daughter”, I never drank again and went to AA.

My third month into recovery, I had a radical conversion as described by William James in his The Varieties of Religious Experience. It was instant and I call it ‘”the moment that changed my life.” So I have been trying since 1977 to hear what God’s will is for my life. Many days I have followed my will and called it His. But there has been progress, too.

In June, 2009, my husband left me for another woman and they live down the street together. Without God and His followers, I could not have been able to pick up my life and move on. But I now have a need to support myself as my Social Security isn’t enough.

I have been writing on blogs for five years mainly about my spiritual journey which I call recovery. My original blog became so large that I have 6 blogs which each have a single main topic. I have about 30 blogs as I did several to help others learn how to do blogs. I have put all my online work on a separate blog which also has my resume. That blog is My Online Work and Resume.

I always believed that I would make money with my writing. But that hasn’t happened. There are 20,000,000 blogs now. The writing field online is glutted with other writers due to so many looking for any kind of work. There also is so much competition from other countries with writers who work for $1-$2 per article. Each article takes about 1-1 1/2 hours to write.

The main reason that I love helping others is because we are each born with a core of goodness from birth. I also believe that contains our creativity which is the source of our joy. I also believe that helping anyone find this creativity is the answer to awakening others to the beauty of himself/herself. Finally, I believe maturity is returning to the joyful, playful child that God created.

Tulips by chrismichaels

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”       Rainer Maria Rilke

I am living the greatest emotional upheaval of my life. When a catastrophe erupts my every aspect of living, I batten down the hatches and go to ground. The only decision I make as I live the question is to be gentle to myself. I am my own best friend and I seek out refuges for the soul. My soul needs protection and strength during trouble.

Taking naps or rests whenever possible helps me to focus my energy on moving forward. One of the main choices I make is to not “should” myself.  Shoulds are for times when I have excess energy and not for when I am running on near empty. I am reminded of the times when I was young and driving with very little gasoline in a car. I would go down hills in neutral believing this would get me further. So now I try to coast through this trouble.

The love of my life has found another. Will I survive? Of course, but my whole future will be changed. Part of the solution must be the dreaded division of goods. I have decided to let go of mostly everything. I think selling what I have collected will allow me a much better launching pad for my new life.

So I will offer most of what we have to the new couple. This house we’ve both worked on is more his home than mine. It is has two decks on a freshwater canal and I don’t fish. Plus it has a wonderful latticed deck that I rarely use. Better that they have it and enjoy it.

I am quite surprised at this letting go. But I came to this solution slowly and without forcing anything. So I know that this will free up the energy needed to move forward.

God is good and always brings our answers if we surrender to the process. My puny little brain couldn’t have decided this. But I make the biggest choices with my heart. He has been as good a husband as he could be. But our life agendas are completely opposite. No need for me to add to the pain.