Maggie Robbins - Enjoy the Silence. A 30-Day Experience in Listening to God

INVERT

ENJOY THE SILENCE: A 30-DAY EXPERIMENT IN LISTENING TO GOD
Copyright 2005 by Maggie Robbins & Duffy Robbins

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 0-310-86180-2

Youth Specialties Products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020 are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Robbins, Maggie, 1953
Enjoy the silence : a 30-day experiment in listening to God / by
Maggie Robbins and Duffy Robbins.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-310-25991-6
1. Bible--Reading 2. Christian youth--Religious life. I. Robbins,
Duffy. II. Title.
BS617.R55 2005
242.63--dc22

2005010112

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version (North American Edition), copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Word by Madeleine LEngle. From Lines Scribbled on An Envelope While Riding the 104 Bus by Madeleine LEngle. Copyright 1969 by Crosswicks, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Lescher & Lescher, Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-(except for brief quotations in printed reviews) without the prior permission of the publisher.

Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties.com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and replacement URLs if available.

Editorial direction by Doug Davidson
Edited by Randy Southern
Proofread by Ivy Beckwith and Anna Hammend
Cover design by Burnkit

05 06 07 08 09 10 / DCI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WORD

I, who live by words, am
wordless when

I try my words in prayer. All
language turns

To silence. Prayer will take my words
and then

Reveal their emptiness. The stifled voice
learns

To hold its peace, to listen with the
heart

To silence that is joy, is adoration.

The self is shattered, all words torn
apart

In this strange patterned time of
contemplation

That, in time, breaks time, breaks
words, breaks me,

And then, in silence leaves me
healed and mended.

I leave returned to language, for I see

Through words, even when all
words are ended,

I, who live by words, am
wordless when

I turn me to the Word to pray.
Amen.

Madeleine LEngle

Lines Scribbled on An Envelope While Riding the 104 Bus

Wed been to this church several times, so the offer didnt catch either of us totally off guard. On the other occasions I had spoken at Mount Oak Church in suburban Washington, D.C., Maggie and I had opportunities to meet some of the folks in the congregation. We knew many of them held important and interesting government jobs. It was not unusual on a Sunday morning to be ushered to your seat by a Pentagon consultant, listen to a testimony by an FBI agent, or hear an offertory solo by a congressional aide.

But Steve Evans had a particularly intriguing job. He was in charge of all Secret Service agents working in the White House.

He approached us after the Sunday evening service and offered an invitation. He said he would like the two of us to come to the White House the next morning to meet the president of the United States.

Of course we were blown away. We couldnt believe it. We just kept thinking, Gosh, what a treat this will be for the president! So we said, Great, lets do it!

Standing in the back of the church, we worked through the logistics of the next morning. Steve made it very clear we needed to meet him at the west gate of the White House promptly at 7:30 a.m.and we had to be out by 8:15 a.m. It seems there was a cabinet meeting scheduled for 8:15, and Steve had a sneaky suspicion the cabinet members wouldnt appreciate our presence in the room during the meeting.

He told us wed have to leave the home where we were staying by 6:30 a.m. if we were going to make it to the White House by 7:30. That meant rise-and-shine no later than 5:30!

That Sunday night we went to bed at our friends house with our heads spinning. We couldnt believe we were going to be standing in the Oval Office in eight short hours. It took us awhile to settle down to sleep, but finally we drifted off.

In what seemed like the middle of the night, we were awakened by a ringing phone. We couldnt figure out who would be calling at such an hour, but since it wasnt our phone, we ignored it. We heard footsteps crossing the kitchen floor to answer the phone. A moment later Carol, our hostess, knocked on our bedroom door and said, Duffy, are you awake? Telephone for you. Its the White House!

I opened the door, still half asleep, took the phone from her, and said, Mr. President, I hope youre not going to ask us to stick around for the cabinet meeting tomorrow morning. Weve got things to do.

I was greeted by an urgent voice. Duffy, is that you? Where are you? Do you know what time it is?

My brain was still lingering in the Twilight Zone, so I asked, Who is this?

Its Steve Evans, was the reply. Duffy, its 7:45. I was calling just to make sure you guys were on your way. If you havent left yet, theres no way youre going to get down here in time. Were going to have to cancel the whole thing this morning. Im sorry. Maybe the next time you come to Mount Oak, we can set something up.

By the time I hung up the phone, my wife knew something was up. She heard only my end of the conversation, but she could tell something wasnt right. When I got back to bed, she asked what the problem was.

Maggie, I said, I dont know how to say this, but youre married to one of the only guys in the country who slept through a chance to meet the president of the United States.

I couldnt see the expression on Maggies face, but I knew exactly what she was thinking. She was thinkingwell, she was thinking exactly the same thing youre thinking as you read this story: What a complete idiot!

But before you close this book in disgust, let me make two comments about this episode.

Number one: It never happened. We made it up.

Number two: Actually, it did happen. In fact, it happened this morning. And it happens every day to millions of people. Its probably happened to you.

Not that you would sleep through a chance to go to the Oval Office and meet the president of the United States. Nobodys that stupid.

But people just like youjust like uson days just like this one, pass up the opportunity to enter the throne room of almighty God and talk to the Creator of the universe. Every new day offers each of us a chance to get out of bed and spend some quality time with our heavenly Father. But most of us blow it off for a few extra minutes of sleep.

Thats a pretty sobering thought. But it shouldnt make you feel like a disgusting, spiritually impaired, sleep monger. Thats not the purpose of this book. After all, meeting with God every morning isnt some religious hoop you have to jump through in order to earn his love. We spend time with God because he loves us