Re-Vision

I invite you to read through this passage slowly and see what it provokes in your mind and heart - 

How lovely is your dwelling place,
    Lord Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,
    and the swallow a nest for herself,
    where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
    Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
    they are ever praising you.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
    they make it a place of springs;
    the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

They go from strength to strength,
    till each appears before God in Zion. (Psalm 84:1-7 NIV)

As I marinated my mind in this Psalm this week I wrote down in my journal how I was internalizing it and the vision it is inviting me into:

How blessed are those who dwell moment by moment with God in the loveliness of his dwelling! Their hearts and minds are that dwelling, captivated as they are by the vision and taste of God's goodness and greatness. This vision completely transforms their experience of reality as it gets filtered through the lens of God's pervasive and lovely presence. The key to interpreting my daily reality lies here. Whatever comes to me today, nothing can separate me from God's dwelling in Christ.

Jesus said, “Rethink your life in the light of the fact that the kingdom of the heavens is now open to all” (Matt 4:17, Dallas Willard paraphrase)

Even the desert experience (Valley of Baka, or Valley of Tears) can become flooded with springing fountains of life as tears are tenderly transformed into living waters, saturated with God's sufficiency. The one who dwells with God in trust is never separated from his care! Therefore they have nothing to fear, for in this world they go from strength to strength, from sufficiency to sufficiency. This is not prosperity as the world defines it, it is well-being of the soul, a deep rootedness in the safety and sufficiency of the Trinitarian God. The world is a perfectly safe place for me to be in light of the fact that the Lord is my good Shepherd, I lack no good thing.

And how blessed all those in whom you live,    whose lives become roads you travel;They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,    discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and    at the last turn—Zion! God in full view! (Ps 84:5-7 MSG)

(Cf. Ps 23; Jeremiah 17:5-8; Mark 1:15; Phil. 4:4ff)

What about you? What is God's invitation to you?

Watching Boats

I wanted to share this meditation practice from Richard Rohr because it is very similar to a guided imagery practice I've found very healing to my soul. If I've got many things bouncing and buzzing in my mind in the morning I will try to place each thought and feeling into some kind of floating object. As it floats by I feel a letting go take place inside. Often I actively roll them down the hill into the water.

Take 10, 15 or 20 min (as much as you can stand!) of silence and solitude and try it, aware of the risen Jesus with you. 

Here is Rohr's version: 

Practice: Boats on a River

Most people have never actually met themselves. At every moment, all our lives long, we identify with our thoughts, our self-image, or our feelings. We have to find a way to get behind this view of ourselves to discover the face we had before we were born. We must discover who we are in God, who we’ve always been—long before we did anything right or anything wrong. This is the first goal of contemplation.

Imagine you are sitting on the bank of a river. Boats and ships—thoughts, feelings, and sensations—are sailing past. While the stream flows by your inner eye, name each of these vessels. For example, one of the boats could be called “my anxiety about tomorrow.” Or along comes the ship “objections to my husband” or the boat “I don’t do that well.” Every judgment that you pass is one of those boats. Take the time to give each one of them a name, and then let them move on down the river.

This can be a difficult exercise because you’re used to jumping aboard the boats—your thoughts—immediately. As soon as you own a boat and identify with it, it picks up energy. This is a practice in un-possessing, detaching, letting go. With every idea, with every image that comes into your head, say, “No, I’m not that; I don’t need that; that’s not me.”

Sometimes, a boat turns around and heads back upstream to demand your attention again. Habitual thoughts are hard to not be hooked by. Sometimes you feel the need to torpedo your boats. But don’t attack them. Don’t hate them or condemn them. This is also an exercise in nonviolence. The point is to recognize your thoughts, which are not you, and to say, “That’s not necessary; I don’t need that.” But do it very amiably. If you learn to handle your own soul tenderly and lovingly, you’ll be able to carry this same loving wisdom out into the world.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2004), 94-95.