The Power of Rest

I have found it helpful over the years to pay attention to what Jesus says to people. Often I will turn to his words and use them to guide my meditation experience. When I was younger, I often felt I needed someone to tell me what Jesus meant. But the older I get, the more helpful it seems for me to just sit and listen to what he said.

Here is one of my favorites:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

Some days I do not make it past his first sentence.

Come to me…

He invites me to move toward him. I close my eyes and imagine myself moving into a room where Jesus is teaching. I scootch up close - I am at heart a gal who likes a front row seat.

All you who are weary and burdened…

Ahhhhhh….my tribe. He did not invite the satisfied, although I am sure they would be welcome! He specifically called out the weary and burdened. I close my eyes and imagine his eyes gazing on me - weary and burdened. I am burdened, like little Tiger Tiger with many insecurities. Still, I am welcomed into his presence.

I will give you rest.

Oh, ok. You will give me rest. Something I often withhold from myself. Jesus is doing for me that which I cannot give myself permission to do. He’s also teaching me that rest is important. None of this “the early bird gets the worm” philosophy! Just come. Have a seat. Take a load off. Rest.

This is what Jesus said. May it be so. Amen.

The Welcoming Prayer

Oh Tiger, Tiger, what if you could believe that God makes everything come out right? What if we believed the same? Spend some time today reminding yourself that as a faithful person, this is actually what you sign up to believe when you commit yourself to God.

Some days I have no words to express my heart’s longings. That’s ok! We know the Spirit is groaning on our behalf like Serena Williams in the middle of a crucial match point. But some days I WANT words, and when those days hit, I often turn to the prayers of others who have gone before me. The Welcoming Prayer is one of my favorites. When I pray it, I am practicing faith even when filled with doubt, courage even when overcome with fear. I pray this prayer as a way of naming my intentions - to believe that God is for me, not against me; that his hand is upon me as support and encouragement, not to punish or manipulate me. It is short and specific. I admit to God and myself that my assessments may feel certain in the moment but have often proven unreliable. I commit my intention to let go of those false strategies that honestly, never worked that great anyway. I let go of my desire to control life, rather than surrender to God’s presence in my life. Join me?

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment because I know it is for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions.

I let go of my desire for security.

I let go of my desire for approval.

I let go of my desire for control.

I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God and the healing action and grace within.

By Mary Mrozowski*

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A note about Mary. She was a founding member of Chrysalis House, a contemplative community in Warwick, New York. She was a vital spiritual force, well-known for her deep spirituality and love of God.

An Attitude of Acceptance

The scriptures remind us in so many ways how much God knows about us and how little we understand ourselves. Maybe today we could go to the source for our self-understanding. God, hear our cries!

While mindfulness encourages us to dis-identify with our thoughts, meditation does not. Meditators encourage us to simply observe, observe, observe. We are asked to observe our thoughts, feelings and body sensations. The only real caveat is that we are encouraged to have an attitude of acceptance and loving kindness toward ourselves. It is a simple way to practice surrender to God. I usually start my daily quiet time like this: “God, I am sitting here in acknowledgement of my reality: you are God and I am not.” Some days, that is all I need to say. Research studies are reporting that meditation is highly effective in the intervention of use disorders. It has also proven effective in the treatment of chronic pain, anxiety disorders and depression. Tiger spends an unhappy day thinking that his parents, friends, and school mates do not like him. How would this affect your mental health if you thought the world was out to get you? What difference would it make in your life if you looked through the lens of abundance rather than being shackled to the law of scarcity?

God makes everything come out right;

he puts victims back on their feet.

He showed Moses how he went about his work,

opened up his plans to all Israel.

God is sheer mercy and grace;

not easily angered, he’s rich in love.

He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,

nor hold grudges forever.

He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,

nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.

As high as heaven is over the earth,

so strong is his love to those who fear him.

And as far as sunrise is from sunset,

he has separated us from our sins.

As parents feel for their children,

God feels for those who fear him.

He knows us inside and out,

keeps in mind that we’re made of mud.

Psalm 103:6-14, The Message

Mindfulness of Reactions

“The practice of mindfulness is not reserved for the meditation cushion...If we are able to wake up, if only occasionally and for a few moments at first, stand back from the ongoing drama of our lives and take an objective look at the habit patterns in which we are caught, then their compulsive hold over us begins to loosen. We dis-identify from them; that is, we begin to see that those thoughts and feelings are not us. They come along accidentally. They are neither an organic part of us nor are we obliged to follow them.”*

In the children’s book, “Tiger, Tiger, Is it True?,” Tiger jumps out of bed and his foot lands on a toy. He goes crashing down. He knows, with certainty, in that instant, that he is going to have a rotten day. And the day does not disappoint. It is as rotten as he expected it to be when he first slipped and fell.

Tiger could have had another thought, one that went like this, “Oh my gosh. Mom told me to pick up my toys and I left them all over the floor. This is what I can expect to happen if I leave small toys lying all over my room. This hurts. I do not like this feeling. I would rather clean up my room than have this happen again.”

Tiger’s first reaction set up the book for a lovely dramatic climax and satisfying resolution. Option two is an example of mindfulness, paying attention, in action. Mindfulness is not some whoo whoo practice, it is a call to attentiveness.

This makes it possible for us to check our thoughts and feelings before they wreck our day, week, month, and sometimes life.

You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Psalm 139:1-3 NIV

The scriptures remind us in so many ways how much God knows about us and how little we understand ourselves. Maybe today we could go to the source for our self-understanding.

God, hear our cries!

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*Snelling, J. (1991). The buddhist Handbook. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 55.

Awareness and Acceptance

Mindful awareness seeks to foster acceptance rather than judging one’s life experiences as right or wrong, good or bad, sick or well. It allows us to learn how to see our thoughts as “just thinking,” and teaches how to put our thoughts in their proper place. Just thoughts. Not the facts, hot commands, not instructions.

“The practice of mindfulness defuses our negativity, aggression, and turbulent emotions… Rather than suppressing emotions or indulging in them, here it is important to view them, and your thoughts, and whatever arises with an acceptance and generosity that are as open and spacious as possible.”*

One professor of psychology, John Teasdale, conducted a study using mindfulness meditation as a relapse prevention treatment for depression. He found it extremely effective. Mindfulness is not intended to change the content of our thoughts, but our attitude and relationship to the thought.

In some Christian communities, mindfulness and meditation are met with a bit of suspicion. Certainly this is not true for everyone, but it is a stigma that bears mention. Tomorrow, we will talk more about the practice, but for today, pray with me?

God, you have taught us in your word that we do not have to understand prayer or even be good at it in order to receive the gifts you have for us...the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself prays for us through wordless groans.

Romans 8:26 NIV

Spirit, keep groaning! We so desperately need divine intervention today.

Amen.

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*Sogyal, S. (1992). The Tibetan book of living and dying. New York: Harper & Row, 123.