Whisper Yes (and the time I screamed at a silent monastery)

Joining with my friend Suzie Eller at her place today.  Would love for you to join her at www.tsuzanneeller.com.  Today’s Live Free Thursday prompt.  Whisper Yes.

I do NOT have a good whisper voice.  I am just, well, to loud for that.  I used to be quiet and shy.  Really.  I know that’s hard for those of you that know me to believe.  But I did, I promise.

It’s almost like the quieter I try to be the louder I get.  I will never forget the time my sister and I took a vacation to a monastery.I realize this is not your typical vacation spot, but we didn’t have much money and you could stay there for free.  And it was in Charleston South Carolina, so it was NEAR the beach.  We took a vow of silence with the monks during the day, and at night in our cabin we would giggle the night away. We even ate our meals in silence.  I had a hard time not spewing water laughing at how loud eating in silence can be.

I also scared the monks to death when we first arrived in time for the time of prayer for the night.  I was mesmerized by their beautiful singing of the Psalms.  No one told me that as we exited they would sprinkle us with holy water on our forehead. I let out a startled scream and then uncontrollable laughter.  The monks could not break their silence and I am sure they were dying to.

Did I mention I do not have a good whisper voice.

I love this quote from Suzie’s new book, Come with Me.

“Whisper  Yes where No wants to take root.”

My most recent whispered yes began a year ago when the earthquake happened in Nepal.  I whispered to God, I want to be there, send me.  Actually I used my not so whisper voice.  I basically shouted to God, I want to go.

I was not sure about that shouted yes when I was there, among the ruins and the rubble of devastation that was unlike anything I  had ever seen.

I was wondering if I should have said no.

But I found hope in the rubble there.  I found a new depth of truth in the cross.  And God birthed in me a book to write about the cross.  About Coming Alive at the Cross, finding hope in any rubble.

I wanted to say no.  But I said yes.  And it may have been in a whisper.

For a year I have worked on that book.  I dug deep into the cross.  It was hard to write.  How could I, a not so very good with big theological words and ideas, write a book about the CROSS, the anchor for all that I believe.

But God.  God asked me to say yes.  And in that yes, He whispered to me.  Each time I came to the keys.  Each page I turned in the gospels.  Each tear that escaped as I found a deeper love than I could imagine at the cross.

He wooed me. He romanced me. He taught me.  This winter as I wrote and rewrote, the cross came alive to me.

“The cross is not just for my eternal life it is for my everyday life.” (Coming Alive at the Cross).

 

 

This whispered yes officially launches on Amazon as a print book and e-book, Coming Alive at the Cross,  on May 10th. I would love for you to come alive at the cross in a new way.  To take an adventure with Jesus.

Would you join me in my whispered/shouted Yes?

Would you let the cross change not just your eternal life, but let the power of the cross sink into your everyday life.

The cross is our invitation to say YES.