"The Still, Small Voice of Love" - Henri Nouwen

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.

That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."

- Henri Nouwen

"Be still and know that I am God"

Freedom is the space for existence. Stillness is space for movement. Silence is space for sound. Darkness is space for light. Coldness is space for warmth. God is the freedom, the stillness, the space, the darkness, the silence, the coldness. God is the container, He is the unmanifested for without which the manifested could not exist. The space always was and always will be. We occupy this space whether we know it or not. We live inside God's body and if we stop and become present we will discover that inside every moment something is pointing to His existence. "Be still and know that I am God".

- Joshua Guild

This contemplative post reminds me of a quote I came across earlier in one of Facebook inspirational pages:

"The breath is the manna of the universe. Be still with the manna of your breath and know your soul."
Spiritual Awakenings

I have learnt that God is in the breath and is the breath because God is spirit and our breath is spirit. God is also grace (divine, perfect and unconditional love that is our true identity) and grace is the manna, and so every moment we breathe in grace, our manna. Like what the quote says, when we are still and breathe in awareness, we will know our soul.

Similarly, I like what the above post says about us stopping and becoming present and discovering that in every moment something points to God's existence. Come to think of it, this is true because God is all in all and there is nothing where God isn't and there is nowhere where God is absent. God is in our breath and in between the breaths we take. God is there when we inhale and when we exhale. God is present when we believe and when we doubt.

Like what Joshua Guild says, God is present in sound and in silence, in darkness and in light, in coldness and in warmth, in freedom and in existence. I think this aptly describes the mystery and mysticism of God that goes beyond traditional doctrines of religions that tend to portray a one-sided picture of God. Indeed, God is both the unmanifested and the manifested, as without darkness there would be no light. I think it is comforting to know God lives in those spaces of our life in which we used to think he was not present. Being still, then, causes us to know and acknowledge that God is ever present, every moment, in us, around us, with us and as us, and is always for us regardless of our state of knowing or awareness. Such is the love and faithfulness of God, our highest consciousness.

"A man of peace" - Osho

"A man of peace is not a pacifist; a man of peace is simply a pool of silence. He pulsates a new kind of energy into the world, he sings a new song. He lives in a totally new way, his very way of life is that of grace, that of prayer, that of compassion. Whomsoever he touches, he creates more loving energy. The man of peace is creative." - OSHO 

I agree with the power and purpose of a man (or woman) of peace in being creative and sending positive energy of grace and compassion. As a saying goes, "Still water runs deep." A man or woman of peace is usually one who spends time meditating and contemplating, and in the process is able to process information and come to a better understanding of how things are - "Be still and know I am". We are love, we are grace, we are the infinite. Peace gives us the stability to withstand any storm from the outside. We also see our own reflection (of our true godly nature) the clearest on still, tranquil water.