As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
when shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my meat day and night,
while they continually say unto me, “Where is thy God?”
Psalm 42.1-3
Behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice (1 Kings 19.11b-12)
O God, my God, for Thee, I call!
Nay, I cry!
Then, waiting and waiting again,
but hearing not Thy voice nor beholding Thy face
(tho’, by faith, trusting still in Thine Existence, thus, beseeching, “Why?”)
I, despairing only, my words failing,
canst but sigh aloud for Thee;
pleading that Thou wouldst speak, aye, appear unto me.
For in perplexity’s hour,
times, these times of tempest and trouble,
when the winds of this world’s woes tear my heart with fear,
when the ground quakes, splitting apart ‘neath my trembling feet,
the stability of my courage, a scant memory of a distant day in the life
(whether mine own, but long gone
or from some vaguely recalled tale of another’s nobility oft I wished ‘twas mine),
I hath greatest need of Thy surest Presence and Power.
Where, O God, my God, art Thou?
And then,
when (only when), breathless, my calls, my cries, my sighs fall silent,
can I hear Thy still, small voice of Love
bidding, beckoning me to retreat from all before my face
to enter that place within of the beginning,
my beginning,
where Thou, Being e’en before the Beginning,
createst me,
thus, where I do face Thou Who hast abideth alway.
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Paul,
It’s so hard to wait when you don’t get a response of any kind right???? Sometimes I think it’s because I haven’t always been the best listener. Now I don’t so much listen for a voice, I look at the sun, at the beauty of nature, my friends smiles etc…. when I’m afraid and feeling lost I think God sends me a song, or a person or a moment to show me that I’m never alone… I’m so grateful for that…. it fills me while I wait…..
Much love!
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Loretta, I like very much the places you look and listen – nature, a friend’s smile, a song, a person – to discern God’s presence. For many are the moments I’ve experienced heaven’s silence, and then, when…if I look at the world around me, I can detect God’s gracious presence.
In this instance, where I was led (literally and figuratively [poetically]) was within my mind and heart, soul and spirit. For there, God, as Creator, dwells.
I think of Jesus’ teaching: “This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you…They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them…Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14.17, 21, 23).
I find it a great comfort to believe, to know that God dwells not only with us, but also within us. Perhaps, then, I think that when I do not hear God’s voice or see God’s face it is because I am looking not so much in the wrong place (for God is everywhere), but rather that I have forgotten the God abides in me, in you, in us all, always.
Love
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