First halting experiences of meditation. A gentle solo song.
John 4: 10; Matthew 6:5
Themes: Prayer, Meditation, Listening
Download sheet music
This song came out of a special time we had at our church during March of 2009, which in turn sprang from time our minister, Philip Turner, spent on sabbatical with some Trapist monks. I think it was quiet there!
Meetings were cancelled, and we kept the music very simple during that month. Instead we looked at Philip Foster’s book Celebrating Discipline. This song came out of some experiences of meditation, both during that month, and much earlier in my life during a retreat in the Quantock forest.
1. Sometimes it seems my need for noise will never end,
I’m scared of stopping, scared of silence.
And when I finally have a heart to pause and pray
I won’t be quiet in your presence.
Chorus
But it takes two to have a conversation.
Press to talk – let go to hear.
So I’m listening, listening. I’m listening for you.
2. I need to plant myself beside the living stream,
To drink its waters with devotion,
And in its echoes learn to recognise the voice
Of one who set the stars in motion.
Chorus
3. What have I heard, what have I seen, what have you said?
Perhaps my prayers are ineffective.
But then I see your world in quite a different way,
It seems you’ve shifted my perspective.
Chorus
I’m tuning in to a still small voice.
With interference it’s lost in noise.
Is the signal there, in the word and prayer?
Well I’m listening, listening. I’m listening to you.
I’m listening.
© P. Arnold 2009
Picture credit: Flikr / Örlygur Hnefill