INCORPORATING the Word of God, and the Presence of the Holy Spirit, into the living of our lives: taking a word, a line, a sentence, a verse, or even a passage of text, and building it into our daily life.
That’s what this is about: drawing the eternal Word into the experience of our lives. …
And that experience is the Presence, being with us, us God-conscious, living real.
As we blend a sunrise or a sunset with God’s divine narrative, or consider a cooling breeze in the shade on a hot summer’s day with the grief imparted from loss, God speaks. God enters the truth with us, and we receive by listening. God is sensed real. Experience is ever pertinent.
By our experience of reality, with his Word listed on our hearts, we live existentially in the rawness of life, which commands the reformation of our character; grow or die.
Meditation is to be our existential mood. A prayerful kind of God-consciousness, meditation in the living, breathing, walking flow of life is the reflexive space within reflection that we all need. By reflexive space, I mean self-reflection as we observe ourselves as others or God might (through his Word), but not in a harmfully judgmental sort of way. We’re after unique insights that only God can elucidate. Our Lord never speaks in a condemning way; only for our learning.
Even in the busy swarm of life there are moments of surreal silence, where a loneliness is ever real, even where life is noisy and chaotic. This is why a living, breathing, walking form of meditation is the crucial stratagem for adding God into our emptier life spaces so otherwise fearful stimuli may be removed. When we have a moment’s respite it’s easier, actually, to enter into a heart space with God than wallow in our darkness. We all have a darkness that we’re tempted to go into.
The living, breathing, walking meditation considers how bizarre life is; it wrestles with the cogency of reality without fighting it. What is may be accepted. A Word of hope is introduced or conjured up from a previous reading. Or, there’s a Word carried in our heart. We learn early on, as we bring a cognisance of God with us into and through our daily moments, that we’re free to conjoin meditation with our moments.
Here are some of the ways that I’ve been able to bring God-consciousness to bear in my living, breathing, walking moments:
➢ Out in nature, on transport, in a new environment, or when imagining other parts of the world, I ponder the wonder in the plainly observable. Pondering wondrous things elicits praise. Nothing of us is in the way.
➢ Downtime is key reflection time for me. I try to think creatively. Even times in the bathroom can be put to good use.
➢ When we’re able to disappear from life in the world for a short time we’re in prime location for a Spirit encounter (and may they be plural!).
➢ Times of exposure, where there’s the flicker of embarrassment, or when the emotions are piqued, I ask God mindfully to still my heart before responding. Reflective space, where God makes himself real in our experience, can be found even at times of great pressure.
➢ I try to see what I do not readily see. “Lord, show me what I’m missing.”
➢ When my responses are intuitively graceful I know they’ve not come from the unhealed hurt me that dwells in me. I’m reminded these responses are from the Source of grace, himself.
➢ Reading my Bible, I seek direction on where to look and what to look for, and I try not to be swayed too much by human logic.
Engaging momentarily in meditative reflection enhances our experience of the Presence of God. Meditating was made for the unclaimed moment.
Accept those moments. Create those moments.
Fill those moments with God.
Take a Word into your moments to make your moments worthwhile.
A Word is a caption of God-life for overwhelming perspective.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.
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The photo in the image above is a rock I picked up over the summer. I was originally drawn to it because of what looked to me like a cross in the centre with a pathway leading to it. The more I look however, the more my eyes are drawn to the blaze of glory behind it, a wonderful reminder that the kingdom not the cross is at the centre of our faith. It was the good news of the kingdom, not of the cross that Jesus came to proclaim. (Mark 1:14-16)
In their fascinating book Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire. Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker tell us: “It took Jesus a thousand years to die.” Brock and Parker travelled the Mediterranean looking for early Christian art that depicted the crucifixion, instead they found wonderful images of healing, restoration and resurrection in a garden of incredible beauty. If the cross was portrayed it was always with Jesus in front of it welcoming the repentant and reconciled.
The authors contend that images of Christ on the cross as the central focus of Christian faith grew out of the sanctioning of war and violence as a holy pursuit. The earliest images of Christ on the cross as the central focus that they found, appeared in the 10th century in northern Europe and proliferated throughout the Middle Ages. What brought about this change? Brock and Parker believe that it was Charlemagne who began the trend as he spread Christianity by war and violence, subduing the Saxons and forcing them to become Christians. In fact it was in these Saxon churches that the earliest images of crucifixion are found.
What is your response”
Sit for a few moments and think about your own view of Jesus and the good news he came to preach. Is it a vision of love or of militancy? Do you preach the good news of the kingdom through your words and actions or are you so focused on the Cross and its judgement that the good news does not shine through? Allow God to speak to you and draw you closer.
What did that good news look like? I love the way that The Voice translates it in Luke 4:18-21:
The Spirit of the Lord the Eternal One is on Me.
Why? Because the Eternal designated Me
to be His representative to the poor, to preach good news to them.He sent Me to tell those who are held captive that they can now be set free,
and to tell the blind that they can now see.
He sent Me to liberate those held down by oppression.
19 In short, the Spirit is upon Me to proclaim that now is the time;
this is the jubilee season of the Eternal One’s grace.
This is the jubilee season of the Eternal One’s grace, and the glory of God shines around Jesus to proclaim the good news of the kingdom to all who are poor, blind, and oppressed.
Tom and I have just been up in Canada celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving, in a few weeks we will also celebrate American Thanksgiving. For me the imagery of the kingdom conjures up a great homecoming feast a little like Thanksgiving only better. This is a feast that I never tire of talking about. It is a feast that we catch a glimpse of every time we sit down at dinner with friends and strangers. A feast that is foretold in the sharing of the bread and wine of communion.
What is your response?
Watch the video below and spend some time thinking about what the homecoming of God will look like. Who will be there that you usually ignore or despise? What can you do to change your attitudes?
I have just finished reading Rodney Newman’s new book Journeys With Celtic Christians, a delightful little book with fresh insights into the Celtic life of pilgrimage. I was particularly inspired by Rodney’s insights into Celtic blessings:
Reading through the prayers of the Celts, you notice that they almost never ask God for anything directly. Instead they recognize that God is already present and active all around them, and they call for those blessings to be made real in their own lives. (Journey With Celtic Christians 139)
Recognizing that God is active in everything and everywhere, blessing us through all the mundane activities of life is both reassuring and inspirational. It was thinking about this that inspired the prayer above.
Sit quietly for a moment and ask God to ignite your creativity in a prayer of blessing.
Who are the people you should bless today through your words and actions? Maybe you would like to send them the prayer that you write.
What are the situations you face today in which you need to see the blessing of God? Write a prayer of blessing that encompasses those situations. Carry it with you throughout the day and extend the blessing of God into all that you do.
About 9 years ago, my husband Karl and I got lost up the mountains in the middle of a Cape Town winter in South Africa. We had a guide book with us, but lost the path and ended up bundu-bashing up a steep creek in order to reconnect with the path on top of the mountain above Suikerbossie in Hout Bay. The sun was preparing to dip below the horizon when we came to the verge of a sheer escarpment and then a drop, into apparent nothingness. We bumped into two Californian students who had also lost the path at the same point in time and phoned rescue services twice, were promised a helicopter, but in fact both calls were not even logged which left us stranded!
With a failing cell phone battery, after those calls, we had no way of communicating with the outside world. Thankfully it had been an unusually warm winter’s day, but June up the mountain in the middle of the night in Cape Town is no joke! We knew we couldn’t risk the downward backtrack in the dark even though we had a headlight, being far too risky to possibly slip and fall into unknown dangers. So we walked instead to keep warm, across the tops of the 12 Apostles, a long range of mountains, throughout the night, stopping for naps and continuing our journey when it became too cold… all the way to the side of Table Mountain when dawn light pinked the mountains as we walked up the final countless steps, with Karl pulling me up step by step to the top. We ended up on page 3 of the city newspaper, The Argus. And then I found myself heading for a burn out at work, from the post traumatic stress of it all!
However, on the other side of that mountain ordeal, our pilgrimage together throughout that long lonely night, taught me some very important things. It showed me what uniting together can do, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20). Even when I thought God let us down and left us alone, I was in fact learning deep lessons of strength and endurance. I learnt that there were reserves in me I never knew existed. And that when I come to really challenging circumstances in life, there is something that night up the mountain that taught me, that with the help of God and with the help of others I can accomplish much more than I ever think I am able.
We all have within us reserves of hidden resilience. When we are pushed beyond our feeling of ability, God rises up in our weakness. There are buried treasures inside of us that we discover, only under certain conditions. Sometimes life narrows into a seemingly impossible to navigate corner before we discover a solution rising up from within that we would never have accessed in the easy to navigate terrain of everyday life.
When we are pushed into a corner like this and all of life feels like a brick wall, it is then we find, Jesus weeping with us in our pain and disappointment. And then we come to see life in a completely different way when he calls forth resurrection into our situation, as what is dead suddenly comes out of a tomb into the light. We are instructed to take off the grave clothes and walk out of that tight corner into a whole new way of being and doing.
Heading toward my 40th birthday, at times I’ve felt as though I’m approaching a hidden corner. The mountain pilgrimage serves again to remind me that my weakness becomes a catalyst for God to release surprising reserves to resurrect within me. United in the Trinity and within the support of my loving family and friends I will find a path to cross over into the new day. It is not necessarily the path I expected by this time in my life. It is rather something much better, the path God has chosen for me. When I recognise that, thankfulness flows and gratitude shapes my perspective in such a way that I can no longer desire the “should have” “could haves” any longer. I can live in and embrace the “what ares”, the “what is” and find peace in the centre of my being.
With God comes a new way as my depleted reserves become an unlocking of doors, a new pilgrimage to navigate with the Journey Master of my Life, Jesus Christ. His love perseveres into eternity with me and for me. He shows me what is of true value, of true importance. “Step forward in my love each day and embrace my will for your life.” This is what He shares with me. This is what is needed.
And who knows what is waiting for me on the other side of 40? But with my God I am on the threshold of life peeking into something altogether new and realising that what felt old and stale is actually the dying of old seed husks so that new shoots can poke out of the soil and start becoming what they were always meant to be. And I am determined to allow the growth of this pilgrimage to do its work so that those plants will grow without undue hindrance, into a harvest.
I am learning to let the path go where it wills, and let it be what it needs to be.
To let it be what it is.
As you listen to this song “Shepherd” by Amanda Cook, you will find the prayers of a pilgrim rising up to the Father:
Jenneth Graser lives in Cape Town, South Africa where she has lived for most of her life but has also lived in North Vancouver when her family immigrated there in the early 80’s, and in Toronto, Canada. She is married to Karl and they have three daughters who are being homeschooled. Karl and Jenneth facilitate a contemplative group called Free Flow, and are on the eldership of the Bay Community Church in Muizenberg. She has written “Catching the Light: a Devotional”. Jenneth’s contemplative songs, audio devotional podcast and blog poetry may be found at: www.secretplacedevotion.weebly.com
It is heading towards midday on a beautiful spring day here in Australia. I find myself with an idea brewing, a question in my mind, and God in my heart. Not a bad place to be. What of all the lessons about journeying to God do I share?
And so I start with the mess..
The ‘Beck’s Life’ journey has been full of twists and turns. It has taken me down dark corridors of wondering if I would ever see the light again. Serious illness, rebellion, breakdown, suicide attempts, abandonment, divorce ¬- just to put a label on a few. You would be forgiven for thinking that most people don’t fully recover from something like that list. But that is just it. It’s a list of things that are past. And just as surely as God holds the future and present in his more than capable hands, he holds the past too. And so it is with wonder in my heart that I can declare this… GOD IS FAITHFUL. God is healer of brokenness. He will restore even the most troubled of pasts if you allow him to intervene. And my testimony is that when he does, its done well! Those troubled times can, and will, be used for the good of his kingdom. We humans are frail. But with his Spirit within us, his power is made evident in our weakness.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 “But we have these treasures in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belong to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”
Where was God during all that horror? Right beside me, holding me and loving me. That amazing protective love that says “Do not fear, you are worth so much more than you think right now.” So the Journey towards God was a decision for me to know that he was already there, and I was joining with him.
Our Father ‘journeyed’ towards us at the dawn of time. He never abandoned us. And the second he hears us crying out his name he rushes to us. The question is this. Do you want to be with Him? Start the journey of coming home, just like the prodigal son returned to his father (Luke 15:11-32). And continue the journey – being conscious of God’s presence with you. Listen to his truth as he says that you are worthy of his love. Trust his plan is a good one, and he knows who you are, in all your uniqueness. He has the ‘best fit’ plan, made just for you.
And my dear friends…ENJOY THE JOURNEY!
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Rebecca Baxter lives in a small country town in Australia. She is mother of five children. Between everyday life activities Rebecca is also a leader of an online prayer community called ‘The Sanctuary Prayer Space’ https://www.facebook.com/intothesanctuaryparkes and is called to journey with people who have broken pasts and bright futures in Gods hands.
The Bible is full of journeys – Abraham, the Exodus, the Exile and the return to Jerusalem, Paul’s missionary journeys – but you’ll seldom if ever hear the Bible referring to the life of faith as a journey. We, however, use that metaphor all the time. We say things like, “In my faith journey, God has used so many circumstances to teach me about trust.” We talk about God “walking with us” in hard times. We might say something like, “I’ve come a long way in my faith since my father died.” All of these statements evoke faith as a journey.
“Journey” is such a helpful metaphor, and I want to point out a few reasons why.
- “Journey” focuses on the process of getting there, not the arrival. Christians are being transformed into Christ’s image “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is a process that continues throughout our earthly life. On earth, we never arrive but we continually grow closer to who we were created to be. When we talk about faith as a journey, we are emphasizing progress, not perfection.
- A journey implies changes, transitions, challenges and adventures. I’m sure my desire for comfort, stability and outward peace isn’t unique to me. When I think of my life in Christ as a journey, I am more open to meeting God in the unexpected. I am less likely to resist change and challenge.
- Many human journeys involve travel companions. Sometimes our travel companions accompany us on the entire trip, and other times we meet up with a short-term travel companion. In many instances, travel is quite difficult on our own and significantly easier with a companion, someone to open doors when we’re juggling baggage, someone who knows the language to translate a menu in a foreign country or someone to chat with about the scenery. When I think about my life of faith as a journey, I pay attention to the travel companions God has given me.
- When we travel, we often need to lighten our load. Simplicity is a very helpful practice when travelling, and simplicity is also a very helpful practice when walking with Jesus through life. Maybe I need to jettison my attachment to some of my possessions. Maybe I need to let go of anger and bitterness about someone or something. As I look back over many years of walking with Jesus, I can see how many attitudes and presuppositions God has helped me relinquish.
- When we travel, we get to experience the wonder of the guest-host shift. When we receive the hospitality of others, we are the guest. But sometimes the guest makes a contribution to the host, shifting the role. Jesus was a master of this. On the first Easter, in Emmaus, Jesus is invited into a home. At the table he breaks the bread and is revealed to be the Host (Luke 24:13-35). In many small ways, guest and host shift back and forth in many settings, and this is one of the gifts of the journey. We all give, and we all receive.
The biggest and most significant journey story in the Bible is Jesus leaving heaven and coming to earth for our sake, to live and die and be raised again so that we can live in him. Jesus asks us to journey with him into family relationships, friendships, work, neighborhoods, and the broken world. Jesus asks us to trust him as he gives us companions and calls us to lighten our loads. The Holy Spirit works in us so we can grow into Jesus’ image on the journey and so can reach journey’s end.
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Today’s post is contributed by Lynne Baab the author of numerous books and Bible study guides on prayer and other Christian spiritual practices, including The Power of Listening, Sabbath Keeping, Fasting, and Joy Together: Spiritual Practices for Your Congregation. She teaches pastoral theology at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She has also recently published a new novel, Death in Dunedin, a mystery set in her beautiful adopted home town, Dunedin New Zealand.
Visit her website, www.lynnebaab.com, to read her blog, access numerous articles she has written about spiritual practices, and find information about her books.
Check out Lynne’s other Godspace posts here
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