Trust The Silence

When I center, I let go and trust the silence. Letting go comes first, and then comes trust. I don’t know what will happen next. I let go of expectations. I let myself be vulnerable. I do not know what feelings and emotions I will experience both during and after my sit. I trust that God is in charge and knows what is best. Centering prayer is a continuous practice of trust in God who waits in the fertile silence.

Centering prayer teaches us to let go. We even let go of repressed and painful thoughts and emotions. Centering prayer lets God heal our body, mind, and soul. Centering prayer lets God work in us.

God can fill us with whatever She feels we need. We might be filled with love, peace, or mental and physical healing. We might be filled with sudden needed knowledge to accomplish our daily tasks or with an urge to serve. We might be moved to make a major shift in our personal and work life or nudged to try something new. We might be asked to make a call to repair an estranged relationship or sit and listen to someone in pain who needs a hug and an attentive ear.

When we incorporate silence into our day, the day is transformed. Silence is a time when we let go and let God work in us. Why is it so important to “let go”? Thomas Merton wrote, “Only when we are able to ‘let go’ of everything within us, all desire to see, to know, to taste, and to experience the presence of God, do we truly become able to experience that presence with the overwhelming conviction and reality that revolutionizes our entire inner life.” This is what we do each time we “let go” during centering prayer.

“Letting go” during silent prayer is merely practice for “letting go” that must continue during our daily lives. We need this continuity if we truly want to see, live, and experience abundant life. We let go of our pet project and check in with our spouse about her hard day. We set aside our all-consuming online work to start the cherished nerf-gun battle with our eight-year old son. We let go of our exciting plans for the day and visit our friend struggling with sobriety.

Rich Lewis is an author, speaker and coach who focuses on centering prayer as a means of inner transformation. His book, Sitting with God: A Journey to Your True Self Through Centering Prayer (288 pages) is available now.