Article January 9, 1960 ISSUE

Signs of the Times

Harry A. Bullis

Together

Harry A. Bullis in Together Chicago, Illinois

When I was a youngster, I was a skinny, stammering, self-conscious, six-foot bean pole of a boy who suffered a dreadful inferiority complex. My mother, a devout Methodist, worried about my anguished state of mind.

One day, when I was moodier than usual, she said: "Harry, you go out into the woods and talk over your troubles with God."

I called my dog and walked out into the still, green forest. In all my youthful earnestness, I asked God for help. I waited and listened, my dog silent beside me. Finally, I thought I heard God say:

"Harry, you've got to stop being ashamed of yourself. Lift up your head. Straighten your shoulders. Walk forward with honesty and courage, and you will Fight and win your way up to a good life."

That is when I learned the secret of what I call "listening silence." After every talk I have with God I sit back and listen for his guidance....

Countless times in my career I have realized that I alone was not up to making the plans and decisions I had to make. I needed help. At those times I have never forgotten what I learned in the forest, I put myself into a mood of receptive listening, alone and silent, waiting for some help or signal from God. Through the years he has never failed me. I know that his voice is waiting to be heard....

God's helpful guidance may come out of a clear sky, while I am talking with someone or reading a book. It has come to me in a stratoplane over the Atlantic, or in a taxi hurrying through the streets of downtown Minneapolis. And when I have had the courage to follow what I believed to be God's will, I have reached decisions that proved to be right. But when I lacked the necessary courage, I failed.

My experience with prayer and listening silence has convinced me that God is order in the midst of doubt and confusion....

In these busy, exciting times we must seek God's guidance more fervently than ever before....Anyone who denies that we need God on our side as we march along the years is either arrogant or infantile. I am convinced that if we learn to attune ourselves and listen receptively, the answers will come. Perhaps not all at once. Perhaps not entirely to our liking. But they will surely give us new confidence, spiritual poise, and power.

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January 9, 1960

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