heart's loss, spirit's gain

Each day I post a short prayer on my twitter account and my facebook profile. Today's dealt with silence and communion. It was, admittedly, a bit cryptic! Because of that, someone commented: "i so don't understand your daily prayer...what does that mean? i read them everyday.. but this one is just beyond my understanding. hmmmm..."

My response:

Such a good question! Let me see if I can clarify. The prayer was: "My heart's loss for words is my spirit's gain for communion with you can emerge in true silence."

The prayer was suggested to me by this text from Romans 8: "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."

So...
A. Sometimes my heart is at a loss for words. Sometimes I don't know how to form into words what I am thinking/feeling.

B. When I am in this state, it often leads to silence, since I don't know what to say or pray. There are two kinds of silence...

C. "True" silence is different than "false" or "pretentious" silence. "False" silence involves doing the *actions* of silence, but not really being silent in my heart and mind. "True" silence involves a stillness of heart and mind, out of which hearing God becomes possible. Hearing God never comes with false silence.

D. When words fail me in prayer, it sometimes leads to true silence. If so, I can hear (or "commune") with God in that silence.

E. Today's prayer is a reminder to me that I needn't be troubled if my heart is at a loss for words because such a loss for words provides occasion for communing with God. And communing with God is always my spirit's gain.

I hope this helps! Let me know if it's still muddy and I'll take another stab at it! :-)

Either way, we do well to embrace true silence and needn't worry when our heart seems jumbled.