What do I even begin?
Before you begin reading, let’s stop. The world is noisy. There’s lots going on. Let’s pause.
Find your grounding – feet on the ground…hand over your heart.
Draw in a slow, deep breath – to your belly, breathing in your awareness the presence of the Spirit within.
Hold it there – 1, 2, 3.
Now slowly exhale – releasing the breath, aware of the presence of the Spirit around you.
Repeat this however many times, until you feel your head and heart are connected, and your spirit, present.
Now in this space of greater presence with yourself, and with the Holy, ask yourself:
What is keeping me from greater inner freedom right now?
We find ourselves several days into the season of Lent. This is a traditional 40-day period leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s intention is to honor Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness.
Are you experiencing a time in the wilderness right now?
What is tempting you?
How are you seeking the Holy’s presence to “save us from this time of trial”?
In light of the chaos and noise around us right now, I have been seeking words that comfort, calm, offer truth, ground, and guide me. As I search for such words, I have discovered some authors that offer that to me in this season. One of these authors is Christine Sine. Among many other attributes, Christine says she is “passionate about helping [Jesus’ followers] to connect with their faith and spiritual disciplines in their everyday life,” and considers herself as “a contemplative activist.”
Christine has a blog on Substack. Her recent post, Spiritual Practice – Giving Up Walls For Lent really got me thinking. Check it out!
In 2019 Fran Pratt wrote a beautiful Litany about breaking down walls
If we can forget the idea of separation,
Perhaps we can stop building walls on its behalf.
Oh God, may we let love have free reign
To build something more imaginative than walls.
Christine’s focus, and no doubt, our own focus of where we build walls, is between us and one another. Isn’t that why walls exist? To establish and protect our territory as it relates to others? To note what is mine and what is yours? There is certainly purpose to that practice.
Return now to your intentional breath.
What individual or people group am I experiencing as “other”?
What is keeping me from seeing them as whole? As someone I could care about?
Pause.
I would now like to suggest that, even before we go further in noting where walls are between you and others, and before you explore what you want to do with that knowledge, consider this: do we need to actually build a firmer foundation beneath that with a more purposeful self-reflection and examination? How can I authentically practice with others what I do not, or cannot do with my self?
In this moment, I encourage us to take the notion of walls even deeper – even more personal.
Where are you aware of building walls within yourself.
What part of you feels too vulnerable, or perhaps unsafe, to be willing to see it – recognize it – name it – be with it? – Empathy? Humility? Fear? Unknowing?
Now consider, what part of yourself is so sure of itself, that it is the one that has enclosed a more vulnerable part of you behind walls? Control? The-need-to-be-right? Rigidity?
This is a big ask. And please, don’t go there alone. Ask the Spirit to come with you.
I am not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind or to break down healthy, established boundaries. Absolutely not. But might the Holy’s invitation be to start the journey within as we are guided to how to “love your neighbor as yourself’?
We are in divided times. That is well established. It is far easier to look at the behavior, and my interpretation of the behavior of an-other, than to truly examine my own heart. Do you find that to be true? In the midst of all of that, is the Holy One ultimately longing for us to lead with love?
How can each of us, regardless of opinions and territories, learn to lead with love? I am not writing about a love that isn’t grounded, or that has no true foundation, but with a love that is grounded in the Holy One’s strong and humble Love. A kind of Love that is often mysterious.
In life, whether we accept it or not, we are always on a journey.
What is your invitation today in considering this inward journey?
