Meditation Moment- Prayer of Loving-Kindness

This prayer of loving-kindness comes from the Buddhist tradition but has been adapted for this material:

Lord, may I be at peace.

Father, may my heart remain open.

Holy Spirit, guide me as I seek to know myself, experience healing, and draw near to you.

Grant that I might be a source of healing for others.

Even as I am grateful to those who support my healing.

Amen

Breathe slowly and pause at each line. Dare to hope that you can be peaceful, open, supported, healed and walk in conscious contact with God. Even better? Your healing makes it possible for you to be a source of healing for others! Gratitude abounds!

Sacred Suffering

Suffering asks us to figure out what we truly believe. Honestly. Not what I want to think of myself, not what I want to convince someone else to think of me - the plain truth and nothing but the truth. It also requires a certain level of trust in God. Mike O’Neill in his book the Power to Choose says, “There’s no power in something that you’re supposed to believe but don’t.” We need to work hard to evaluate what we really, truly believe about God.

What I believe about me teaches me what I truly believe about God; what I believe about God informs what I believe about myself. These two beliefs are mirror reflections of each other.

What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it - we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him - and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.

~ 1 John 3:1-3 The Message

Knowing Your Value

Growing up I heard more sermons on sin than I ever heard about my worth as a child of God. My shame tells me I am worthless; my stubborn resistance and tendency toward arrogance shouts back sounding remarkably like PeeWee Herman, “So what? ‘I know you are, but what am I?’ ” I can find ways to deflect blame and shame. I am a master at defending myself. But honestly, if we have been brought up to believe that we are unworthy, or if we have practiced living an unworthy life for a long time, why wouldn’t we be defensive? Of course we will be defensive!! After all - we were created to embrace virtue and God’s image.

“Some Christians base their identity on being a sinner. I think they have it wrong—or only half right. You are not simply a sinner; you are a deeply loved sinner. And there is all the difference in the world between the two.”

~ David G. Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery[1]

My particular “coming to believe” stumbling block is less about my sin and more around accepting my intrinsic value. If I cannot wrap my head around this idea of self-acceptance then it is almost impossible to believe that restoration is in my future. This sounds like a crazy paradox. I am both ashamed and arrogant, leaving me in the precarious position of not being particularly self-aware.

Meditation Moment- Healing, Guidance, Strength

Recovery can be such a frustrating and confusing process. Here is a prayer that you can use each day. This simple prayer is a way of admitting that we need God to guide us, heal us and strength us along the way. Pray and breathe. Give your body, mind and spirit time to soak this prayer in:

I pray that I receive the healing, the guidance, and the strength necessary for my journey today.

You are Divine

When our life is too disconnected and chaotic, too painful, too meaningless, too confusing to bear God’s image with dignity and respect, why wouldn’t we self-medicate? Why would we even care to try? The distortions caused by bad habits or forgetful living cause us to lose touch with our intrinsic value as children of God. Our conscious contact with God and our capacity to love others as a result of actively working to “bear God’s image” on a daily basis is awesome, but what about when we cannot bear up under the stress of daily living?

Often we are numb, isolated, lonely and ashamed. Or sometimes we are just really, really mad. Maybe, most likely, we do not even much care one way or another about our freaking core values. But here is a tough truth: our body cares, our mind cares, our heart cares. It is the dis-ease of disconnection from God, ourselves and others that does not care. Our body, mind and spirit are in open rebellion against a disease (think of sickness as the opposite of bearing God’s image) that kills and destroys our creativity, our joy, and our love for one another. Our being just knows that it is created for more than isolation, suffering, compulsions and forgetfulness of God.

Humankind was created as God’s reflection: in the divine image God created them; female and male, God made them...God looked at all of this creation and proclaimed that this was good - very good.

~ Genesis 1:27, 31

If you have forgotten - here is your wake up call! Remember? You are divine!