Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to understand
Help us to honor our personal experiences with you
Help us to honor all personal experience
Help us to understand the place of dogma.
Guide us to deeper understanding of difference
Guide us to deeper understanding of sameness
Guide us to deeper understanding of ministry
Guide us to deeper understanding of justice and fairness.
Be with us now as we suffer
Be with us now as we rejoice
Be with us now as we pray
Be with us now as we “be”.
How many times are we faced with a situation that seems so overwhelming that all we have to offer is fear? Perhaps a friend is making decisions that seem strange or unfamiliar to us. Or perhaps there is illness in our family. Any of life’s situations can bring us into this overwhelming state of fear.
The challenge is to sit with the fear, accept it, let it overwhelm you, but without immediate action. My guess is that the fear will turn into prayer for the person or situation.
The calm of prayer will replace the anxiety of the fear.
Several years ago I spent a few days at a wilderness monastery. The Brothers ran a thrift store in the town which was about a two hour drive from their community. I was sitting in the library one day as the two Brothers who were to drive into town to staff the store for the day were being briefed on their journey. It was amusing at the time to hear the rules of the road as it were. Looking back I am in a much better place to appreciate the situation.
There are many times when I leave my own house and step out into the world without considering the rules of the road. Leaving my own “monastery” can be quite jolting at times. A good example happened a few nights ago. I decided to go out in the evening for a bite to eat. As I was driving I was thinking about what I had eaten during the day and what I thought my body would need this evening. The Brothers would only eat a very light supper around four in the afternoon. The noon meal was the main meal of the day. I felt very centered and decided that I only really needed a bowl of soup. I went to a local market that has a good café. Coming from my centered and contemplative place I entered and was shocked by the energies of the masses and the loud noises and music. I came to realize that night that I also need rules for the road for leaving my house and the monastery that I have created.
As contemplative people we could most likely all benefit from a set of rules for the road. The shock of moving about our day will be lessened if we keep in mind that the world outside is quite different than the world we have created for ourselves inside and vastly different than our intimate interior worlds.
Remember: Rules for the Road
I was at my favorite food coop last night. I had a lively discussion with the manager about the volume of the music. I told him that at times it was so loud that I couldn’t concentrate on my grocery list and just wanted to leave. He was a good listener and said that he would turn the volume down and bring it to someone’s attention. They were very busy and I did not give it too much more thought and went about my business. I was standing in the vitamin aisle and all of a sudden my entire body relaxed and just melted into the floor. They had turned down the music. Then something magical happened. I could hear this cacophony of human voices and the sounds of a bustling market. It really was magical.
Are the sounds of life drowning in noise?
I had tea yesterday with a cherished long time friend. She introduced me to this wonderful tea shop. As we were sitting there catching up over our pot of tea I was experiencing so many different levels of our fellowship. The tea was wonderful and it reminded me of the calm that is so lacking in our everyday busyness. The tea brings you down, but in a very good way. The taste and the smoothness, the aroma. The subtlety of the small tea cups and the small portion of tea. The “just right” temperature of the water and the “just right” steeping time.
Do we long for “just right”? Can we find that place in our soul that is “just right”? I often see that place as water finding its level. Still water that is disturbed slightly will find its level relatively quickly. In contrast, the oceans after a hurricane are disturbed for a much longer time. We may have to walk through a lot of pain and discomfort to find the “just right” place, but it is there to be found. Pray for patience and perseverance.
My Labyrinth Journey 