Sunday, June 28

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.
—1 John 2:20

We are a culture of information. If there is something we want to know, we type a few key words into Google, and in seconds, we have more information than we can possibly apprehend in one sitting. Information is so pervasive that it streams into our consciousness even without our being aware of it.

In fact, we have so much information available to us, that we can find ourselves overwhelmed with the sheer volume of it all. We sometimes even long for a time when our lives were not driven by the quest for more and more data.

There is another kind of knowing that doesn’t involve the onslaught of data. It is a knowing in the soul, a knowing that is our gift from the hand of God. This gift opens us up to the world of the spirit that is quiet and easily missed, unless we become quiet ourselves. We don’t need to go on an expedition to find it. This world is accessed when we take a journey inward— to the heart of our being.

When we sit still and quiet and breathe the breath of God, we will probably get distracted with thoughts from our everyday lives. But, if we stay still and quiet, breathing the breath of God, we will suddenly find an image forming, an insight emerging, a prayer shaping within us. We will know on another level altogether what knowledge we have been given, and that knowledge will lead us ever more deeply into the heart of God.

Gracious God, when I am hungry for information, let me be still and know that you are God.