It is about 9:30pm and two hours ago we entered into our 36 hr Silent Sabbath in hopes of giving God the interior space to speak to us deeply without crowding it out with incessant talking. I just took a walk to the closest grocery store, a round-trip hike of about 2 miles through the charming main street of Emmitsburg, MD. The main street is a Normal Rockwell painting come to life with houses built right up on the street, street lights, porches and beautifully adorned with just a whisper of snow. To make it better there were just a few delicate snowflakes falling, visible only in the streetlights. It was cold but well worth it.
I got a bottle of water, 2 packages of M&M peanuts & the weekend edition of USA Today. Now, before you wonder if reading the newspaper goes against the spirit of a Silent Sabbath let me say that before, during and after reading the paper I will be in prayer (I have a prayer partner named Kate from Xenia, OH), in meditation on spirituality and sexuality and doing laundry. Remember, Brother Lawrance said that you could be in the Presence of God doing the dishes or pulling weeds. Why not reading the paper? You may be wondering why such an unusual meditation for the weekend. Quite simply because that is one of the assignments for our time of quite. The main seminar on Monday will be addressing that topic and this is our way of preparing for it.
I had the distinct pleasure of spending about 15-20 private minutes with Tilden Edwards. After the afternoon session most everyone went to dinner but since he was not staying for dinner he offered to stay and visit with anyone with a particular questions. Four of us stayed. Not that I had a question, I didn’t, but I just wanted to hear his replies to the other questions. Once everyone’s question was answered they left. I was about to leave but he engaged me and we had a very encouraging conversation. Of course he connected me with Randy Harris and Jackie Halstead at ACU who have (or are) completing the same program. After that though, we talked about how there seems to be a broad shift in American Christianity that is leading many groups toward a more contemplative orientation. He struck me as a wise and gentle man. It was a unique blessing.
