Finally, not only publications but also films convey the idea of silent listening. One is Crossroad, the story of Frank Buchman’s growth in faith, philosophy and journey in life, from his early life in Pennsylvania. He tells how he decided to ‘set my feet on the revolutionary path’. He speaks of his experience at Penn State University, following his founding of a hostel for impoverished boys in Philadelphia.
[Note! The film is set to start at 14:18 on this page, but you are of course free to rewind and watch the whole film!]
People would beat a path to his door. ‘I was so busy, with people constantly coming and going, I had to have two telephones in my room. I decided on a radical procedure: to give God that hour of day from five to six in the morning, when the phones were unlikely to ring, to listen to God. God told me what to do and I wrote it down…. Since that time I no longer thought in terms of numbers but of people.’
The documentary shows the growth in Buchman’s thinking and experience, and his impact on nations following the startling thought that came to him whilst cycling in Cambridge, UK, that he would be ‘used to remake the world’.
