In Solitude We Allow God to Help Us

 It reminds me of a story about a priest who observed a woman sitting in the empty church with her head in her hands. An hour passed, then two. She was still there. Judging her to be a soul in distress and eager to be of assistance, at last the priest approached the woman and said, “Is there any way I can be of help?” “No thank you, Father,” she said, “I’ve been getting all the help I need until you interrupted!” In solitude we allow God to help us.

Barton, R.Ruth. Sacred Rhythms : Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation. IVP Books, 2006.

To Join the Dance You Must Get Close

"The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us; or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in the dance. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry."

C.S. Lewis

as quoted in Ministry in the image of God : the trinitarian shape of Christian service / by Seamands, Stephen A., 1949-