View from Elijah's Plateau, The Sinai
I get so busy that sometimes I just need to stop everything and listen in silence.
This is nothing new.
The Old Testament recounts how the prophet Elijah went to Horeb, the mount of God (which we call Mount Sinai) to find God. Elijah was old, tired, persecuted, discouraged. “I alone am left,” he says, “and they are seeking my life.”
And he did not find God in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the “sound of sheer silence.” In that silence God gave him renewed hope, and new tasks.
This is the view from Elijah’s Plateau on Mount Sinai where I had a chance to sit in silence for an hour and listen. Luckily I don’t have Elijah’s problems.
Seeker
Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces 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 sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’
1 Kings 19:11-13
Seeker of Wisdom 