{"id":1510,"date":"2013-08-09T07:48:31","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T11:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2013-08-09T07:50:15","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T11:50:15","slug":"robert-hall-it-all-comes-down-to-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=1510","title":{"rendered":"[Robert Hall] It All Comes Down to Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote style=\"background-color: #ececed;\"><p>Here at profligategrace.com we\u2019re grateful to host the Rev. Robert Hall, who recently retired from 47 years of ministry in the Southwest Texas Conference of the UMC, and who still serves as dad to Amy Laura and grandfather to Rachel and Emily.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It all comes down to silence.<\/p>\n<p>Our Hebrew kinfolk have it right.<br \/>\n&#8220;Adonai&#8221; substituted for the divine name.<br \/>\n&#8220;I will be what I will be,&#8221; Moses heard from the burning bush.<\/p>\n<p>Or old St John of the Cross,<br \/>\nGod is &#8220;No lo se que.&#8221;<br \/>\nOr St Anselm, God is &#8220;that which nothing greater can be conceived.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe &#8220;still small voice,&#8221; Dr Powers taught us, really means no voice at all.<br \/>\nAn indecipherable whisper,<br \/>\nLike a breeze.<\/p>\n<p>I have spent my adult life word-smithing,<br \/>\nsearching for just the right words for the subject or occasion,<br \/>\nlooking for beautiful pearls of wisdom.<br \/>\nWhich is a joyful gift, this passion for expression.<br \/>\nAnd yet, there have been times when words have gotten in the way of truth.<br \/>\n&#8220;Less is more.&#8221;<br \/>\nAll language, sooner or later, leads to quietness.<\/p>\n<p>Pray?<br \/>\nYes: ask, beg, praise, intercede, confess&#8211;as we must.<br \/>\nBut prayer to God ends with mouths shut,<br \/>\nhands still.<br \/>\nLike the silent sitting-together with a friend.<br \/>\nOr the peace which descends after beautiful music,<br \/>\nclapping be damned.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here at profligategrace.com we\u2019re grateful to host the Rev. Robert Hall, who recently retired from 47 years of ministry in the Southwest Texas Conference of the UMC, and who still serves as dad to Amy Laura and grandfather to Rachel and Emily. It all comes down to silence. Our Hebrew kinfolk have it right. &#8220;Adonai&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,7,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-guestposts","category-theology-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EotM-om","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1517,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions\/1517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}