Passion and Purity: Lesson Two

         This one is going to be a little shorter, but the lesson is just as important...

I kept reading the same chapter since it seemed to pull me further in with the first paragraph. Then another paragraph hits me:

 

“Waiting silently is the hardest thing of all. I was dying to talk to Jim and about Jim.”

 

While she was waiting for a relationship with Jim to just… happen already, she did it silently. There was no sneaking off to her best friend’s dorm at two in the morning right after one of their walks to talk about how Her and Jim hadn’t talked at all… but rather enjoyed each other’s company, taking in the beauty that God had created at the Lagoon. Instead, she was silent.

I had made a connection with something that she had mentioned a few chapters back. She says, “I was very cautious about what I put into the journals. I don’t think it was because I feared someone else would discover my secrets. I think I was afraid to articulate, even for myself, feelings I might have to get rid of.”

Makes sense... as I made the connection I realized, that is what I often do. I don’t want to admit that I have feelings so I beat around the bush using phrases like “sorta kinda” and “maybe.” I didn’t want to admit that I felt a way about someone who would 1.) Break my heart or 2.) Not end up being “the one” so I would often write about how I felt, but not enough to be totally committed to my feelings. Although something Elizabeth did was, she set her desires behind her and only focused on God’s desires, so instead she wrote bible verses down in journals, made notes of small things that happened with Jim, but never going into full detail.

However, that is not where the paragraph ends:

“Waiting silently is the hardest thing of all. I was dying to talk to Jim and about Jim. But the things that we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about, at least until we have talked them over more thoroughly with God.”

I agree.

           The chapter ends with this:

 

            S.D. Gordon, in his Quiet Talks on Prayer, describes waiting. It means:

                        Steadfastness that is holding on;

                        Patience that is holding back;

                        Expectancy that is holding the face up;

                        Obedience that is holding one’s self in readiness to go or do;

                        Listening, that is holding quiet and still as to hear.

           

            How long, Lord, must I wait?

            Never mind, child. Trust Me.

 

            The chapter starts with trust and ends with trust.

 

 

Lesson Two: Wait SILENTLY