"I know how busy you are," people will say to me and it is a painful reminder of how far I have strayed from the prayerful life. If I am too busy for another sister or brother, I am clearly too busy for God. I find it enormously ironic that ministry is often perceived as being so filled with busyness that it has no time for people.

If your work has you so wrapped up that you have no time for others, it is an evil thing and should either be destroyed or run from. Think of the foolishness of working so hard to provide for your family that you have no time for your family.

Stillness, moderation, play...these are means of entering into the silence that allows us to welcome God. I understand that such characteristics are not easily acquired. We have not been taught to celebrate the quiet and our own inactivity. But they are vital to our preparation for welcoming God.

The Society of Friends has understood the importance of silence since their founding several centuries ago. Their worship often consists of the congregation coming together to sit in silence. So holy is this special time for them that it is interrupted only when someone feels the Holy Spirit directing them to speak.

Wouldn’t that put a new slant on our relationships if we only spoke when we believed the Holy Spirit guided us?