Out of Control

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consciousness, control, Meg Wheatley, perseverance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The beautiful trees outside my bedroom window have lost all their leaves now. After the wind of the past few days and the rain all night that will be with us all day, they could not hold on. It is the way of things. We are moving into a new season and have no say in how it will affect us. It is out of our control.

It feels that way with most things now and Meg Wheatley reminds me today of our options on a day like this. It is clearly not within our power to change much of what goes on around us so we ought to take her advice today. She says this:

There is only one thing we can control in life — our own self. We can control our thoughts, our emotions, our responses. We can observe our behaviors and reactions and realize we made a choice. Therefore, we could choose a different response. If we have ourselves under control. (Perseverance, p.107)

That’s a wake up call for me if ever there was one! A good thing to remember and a place to put consciousness on a grey, rainy Saturday. How’s the weather in your corner of the world?

Learning to Flow

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A Deep Breath of Life, Alan Cohen, balance, big picture, change, control, fight, flow, God, hospitality, power, present, psalm 98, reaction, response, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, universe

It’s clear to everyone in the United States of America – and beyond – that things will be changing for us very soon. It’s difficult to be sure of what form those changes will take but change there will undoubtedly be. I’ve spoken before about possible reactions and responses to change. This morning I was again thrust into that reflection by the final verses of Psalm 98, presented in a lyrical way by the following translation.

Let every river lift its hands to clap in time, while hills and valleys join in song to offer hospitality to the Holy One, who comes to right our every wrong. This God will weigh the worth of everything that was, and is, and shall ever be, so mercy can be known in full and justice here be balanced with compassion. (vs. 9-10)

This sense of all things conspiring to offer hospitality to God reminded me of the difference between reaction and response. Turning to Alan Cohen for more insight I read this:

When you come up against a situation that you cannot control, trust that the universe is working on your behalf. When we fight what is, we lose our power. The sage capitalizes on the energy at hand and makes it work on his behalf. Cohen then adds a plea to God, saying: Help me to remember that You are present in all situations, guiding me home even when I cannot see how. (A Deep Breath of Life)

It seems to me that these two messages – one from millennia ago and one from the present age – give the same message. No matter what our feelings about the year that has just begun, we would all do better to stay in the present rather than conjecturing what will or will not unfold. It is God who has the “big picture” and it is ours to take our rightful place in relationship to God, yielding to what is – contributing our best selves to every situation while giving God every opportunity to be our guide on the way forward.

Don’t Worry!

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control, distress, Jesus, Matthew, open up, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, worry

I have wasted a lot of energy in my life worrying about outcomes: what might or might not happen in certain situations or because of certain events. I use the verb “wasted” rather than “spent” because of finally coming to the “right answer” to the question of Jesus in today’s gospel. (MT 6:24-34) He asks, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life span?” The answer is unequivocally “No.” All we have is the present moment. Jesus expands on the issue of worrying to anything in life (what to eat or wear…) and the answer is the same: it doesn’t help! All it gets us is headaches or emotional distress. The advice of Jesus is that we seek first God’s kingdom and spend some time observing creation – the way the world works, the cycles of the seasons – and (although he doesn’t say this we might intuit it) give up our need to control everything about our lives. Surrendering to “the now” isn’t easy but in the long run, when we learn to do it, it is much less stressful than the alternatives.

That certainly sounds simplistic when we consider the sad state of things in much of the world. I’m not suggesting that we give up trying to better our situation or that of others. I’m only recommending that we let go of outcome: do our best and let God be in control. It takes a lot of practice and probably won’t be totally achieved by some of us until our last breath but open hands can receive more than tight fists any day so today I say to myself and anyone who will hear: Let’s open up and get in the game!

 

 

 

Kenosis

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centering prayer, control, crucifixion, emptied, Holy Week, Jesus, judgment, kenosis, Last Supper, letting go, meditation, paschal mystery, Paul, Philippians, prejudice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There is a concept in Paul’s letter to the Philippians that describes a path of spirituality that was the way of Jesus (PHIL 2:6-11). The Greek word kenosis means “emptying out” and as a theological principle calls us to empty ourselves of everything in order to be filled with God. In a practical way it means living simply so as not to be distracted by “things” as well as letting go of judgments and prejudices in order to move toward unity with all of creation and ultimately with God. Paul expresses it in the following way: Although he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God as something to be grasped at. Rather he emptied himself being born in the likeness of humanity…

Centering prayer is a spiritual practice that has become important in my life as a means of imitation of this kenotic path of Jesus. This meditation practice is a prayer of intention where one sits for a period of time in silence (usually 20-30 minutes). The intention includes the gentle letting go of any thoughts that come during that time, not pushing them away but letting them go in order to return to God’s presence. It is simple but not easy, as our minds are continually in motion. I can attest, however, that over years of such practice there is, in the gesture of letting go of thoughts, a deeper letting go happening where one slowly becomes able to let go of judgments and prejudices and needing control of situations and relationships, etc. It does not mean becoming dispassionate and passive in life but rather more positive and accepting of all manner of experiences. It is, I believe, how Jesus could surrender to all that was asked of him, even to his death. It is how I hope to move toward each challenge that life offers for imitation of Christ. The rituals of the Paschal Mystery that we celebrate this week give us ample evidence of the kenotic actions of Jesus, from the washing of the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper to the Crucifixion – an example and opportunity not to be missed!