Sunday, August 19, 2007

The inward face


It is not often I have a chance to sit and reflect on a Sunday morning. I am preaching tonight and Ian Webster is preaching in the morning service. There is no rush to get the sermon inside my head. I am at the moment feeling rather dry inside. Not much going on down there. The emotions are not all revved up. I don’t feel like jumping on tables and dancing. The method of prayer is vague and I am wanting opportunities to distract my soul. The core is so important in our spiritual development. When the inside is not in communion with life it starts to rot. The purpose of things become superfluous and void when attention to the core is left to waste. The outside luster, its pressure and texture are determined by the inward pressure, its nutrients and water. That place we cannot see, but when we stop we hear it speak. The inner sanctum that bursts out in tear or flame if pressed too hard. That place we cannot avoid even though we do with one hundred and one things to hide its presence. The deeper one that speaks our heart, our reality, lies buried either a bomb to surprise or if discovered an honest resting place. The joy of connecting from time to time is to know oneself in every day. How important it is to learn the strings of the inward face.

3 comments:

Jenny Hillebrand said...

It's easy to hide isn't it? I find that I sometimes use that inside world as a hiding place, rather than deal with real people. Or I get involved in minor busyness and hide from real issues. And then - as you say - when you deal with real issues so often one hides from oneself!

David Barbour said...

That inner person, the one we dialogue with, have conversation with or not. Is that the true self? When we dream and wake up in a sweat with our true feelings exposed, is this the true self speaking to us. I think being in touch with this soul (inward face) more and more, we reach a peace with who we really are. The existential soul in the midst of the pasts regurgitation, the sense of other or God, and the current daily circumstances. The real issue is possibly honesty of soul which translates into honesty of behaviour. Oh boy, here I go....

Jenny Hillebrand said...

Yes, it could get interesting. It's probably just as well we don't see too far into each other's inner souls! At the moment I am coming to realise that there are perhaps two versions of me that are looking for each other. The intellectual and the experiential. Maybe the past and the present. Now, when I can get them together...
Can two people ever know the other's silent space?