As the quieter months of the summer begin, how will you utilize the time and space that you have?

More specifically, and less obvious, how will you engage the practice of silence?

With much of the “noise” that makes up our normal days while our students are around during the academic year now removed from our day-to-day life, the stage is set for us to do some of the interior life work that we might tend to neglect in the midst of our busier seasons of ministry.

I offer you today a few quotes from some people who exemplify the depth and richness of a life lived in the consistent practice of silence.

Silence is the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

What deadens us most to God’s presence within, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are engaged in within ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort than being able from time to time to stop that chatter, including the chatter of spoken prayer. ~ Frederick Buechner

God gave us two ears and one mouth, it’s been said, so that we might listen twice as much as we talk, but even that proportion is far too high on the side of talking. ~ Dallas Willard

And I could go on…

But instead I circle back to my original question.

As the quiet(er) months of the summer begin, how will you utilize the time and space that you have?