Invitation to Solitude and Silence

May 11

Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence

by Ruth Haley Barton

**Summary**

We need rhythms that include solitude and silence, time away from the distractions and noise of regular life as well as the expectations of others and our need to perform. Silence and solitude are an important part of preventing ourselves from becoming dangerously tired from living beyond our human limits and doing more than what is ours to do. These practices encourage us to cease our striving and release the things we cling to most strongly, trusting God to work out our most pressing needs and concerns in His ways and timing. And they help us to know our true self as a human being fearfully and wonderfully made for a specific purpose by God Himself.
**Author’s Website:**
Invitation to Solitude and Silence - Ruth Haley Barton

Favorite Quotes

“As strange as it may sound, desperation is a really good thing in the spiritual life. Desperation causes us to be open to radical solutions, willing to take all manner of risk in order to find what we are looking for. Desperate ones seek with an all-consuming intensity, for they know that their life depends on it.”

“In the end the human soul will choose what it most wants. If we are brave enough to stay with this experience of wanting something we do not yet have, we discover that underneath all other desire is a desire for God, for love, for the true belonging.”

“Waiting on God in the silent places of the soul is an active waiting that contains a seed of expectancy and hope. We wait with the kind of anticipation a night watchman feels as he waits for the morning sun to signal the end of his watch. No matter how many hours of darkness he has to wait through, the watchman knows from experience that morning will come.”