Acts 22:10

So I said, “What shall I do, Master?” And the Lord said to me, “Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be informed of all the things that have been arranged for you to do.”

Encountering the risen Christ, your automatic response will be an awestruck “What shall I do, Master?”

Then we will be told to go into “Damascus”—a place in which we can hear what has been arranged for us to do. This Damascus can be a physical place. It is definitely a state of consciousness, of listening, of attunement where we can actually discern what our Master asks of us—what has been arranged for us to uniquely do that only we have been called to do since before time began.

So where might your Damascus be? Do you need to get away from the noise of life, and retreat in order to hear?

Do you need to go to a different mindset? To a place where there is no mind clutter, no lies deafening you to the Master’s voice?

This reminds of the visual aid many teachers have used to illustrate the connection between stillness and clarity. Imagine a bottle of water with some dirt in it being shaken up and moved around without a break.

What happens?

The water turns and remains cloudy.

But what about if you set the bottle down on a table for a while, say, even for just five minutes or so?

The dirt settles to the bottom causing the water to be clear and easy to see through.

It’s absolutely amazing the clarity of mind that comes if you can simply sit still without thinking for just a few minutes.

It is only in that stillness that we shall clearly hear what our task is.

~Brother David Steindl-Rast