Mon, Jan 20 - MLK & the Nonviolent Soul

Our theme this Sunday in worship was about Food for the Soul and feasting on delight in life… and I’ll focus on that for most of this week. But with this being Martin Luther King Jr Day, my thoughts have been on MLK, whose example is inspiring beyond words. I can only imagine the soul-centering work Dr. King must have practiced to have faced down violence and perpetual injustice with such relentless dignity and perseverance. While our nation honors his memory now with an annual holiday, he was tossed in jail 29 different times… most often because he had the gall to demand that people of color be treated equally. Yet while that was his persistent demand, his method was that of nonviolence.

Here are the words of Dr. King: “To our most bitter opponents we say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

King’s life and leadership were true to what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:43-45). It is this recognition that we only live into the fullness of being the image-bearing children of God when we treat others, including our enemies, as image-bearing children of God.

Walter Wink, in Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way, writes: “Love of enemies has, for our time, become the litmus test of authentic Christian faith… Love of enemies is the recognition that the enemy, too, is a child of God. The enemy too believes he or she is in the right, and fears us because we represent a threat against his or her values, lifestyle, or affluence. When we demonize our enemies, calling them names and identifying them with absolute evil, we deny that they have that of God within them that makes transformation possible.”

Becoming soul-centered is about recognizing the image of God within myself… and within others. And once we recognize that, violence against one another also becomes violence against God. So in the words of Dr. King, in lieu of physical force against others, let us commit to soul force.

Let us love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us… so that ALL of us may come to recognize ourselves as children of God.

Sun, Jan 19 - Taste & See

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)

One of the scripture verses we used today is this familiar one from Psalm 38.  So what does it mean to “taste and see” the goodness of God? Among other things, it means that faith is not just about what you believe.  It’s not just about what you think. Soul-centered, life-giving faith is also experiential.  There is a taste to it.

The truth is, some people seem to have better spiritual “taste buds” for detecting the sweet goodness of God’s presence among us. But I also think we develop that sense of taste the more we use it. While many of us dislike vegetables as children, most of us develop a taste for them as we mature; our physical palette develops over time. Likewise, our spiritual palette can be developed. But in order for us to “taste and see,” we must savor the moments we are in. 

If we develop our spiritual taste buds enough, no matter our setting or circumstance, we can recognize the sweet aroma and flavor of the Divine… because the truth is, life is drenched in the Holy.

So in this coming week, when you sit and drink your morning coffee… when you find yourself waiting in the car line at school, or in traffic on the way to work… when you have to clean up yet another mess from your pets, or your kids, or pick up after your spouse…  when your boss fails to show you the respect you deserve… when the little color wheel is spinning on your computer screen… when there are more tasks to do than time to do them… when you are exhausted and overwhelmed… when you find yourself laughing or crying, talking or thinking, watching or praying, worshipping or working or exercising... in all of your doing and with all your being, make it your desire to encounter the Divine.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Amen.

Sat, Jan 18 - Sabbath Shift

As we wrap up this week of reflections on Soul Sabbath, I want to share with you a few thoughts about what I’ll call the Sabbath Shift we’re invited to make in our lives. It’s a shift in our thinking and perspective, and a shift in gears… into something slower, where you can take in the landscape as you move along, and participate in the wonder of life instead of feeling as though it is just being hurled at you. I find these thoughts from Mark Buchanan about the art of Sabbath-keeping to be helpful:

“What makes Sabbath time different from all other time? Simple: a shift in our thinking, an altering of our attitudes. Before we keep a Sabbath day, we cultivate a Sabbath heart. A Sabbath heart sanctifies time. This is not a ritual. It’s a perspective. And it’s not a shift in circumstances… You make a deliberate choice to shift point of view, to come at your circumstances from a fresh angle and with greater depth of field. You choose to see your life otherwise, through a different lens, from a different standpoint, with a different mind-set… We become more ourselves in the presence of Sabbath: more vulnerable, less afraid. More ready to confess, to be silent, to be small, to be valiant.”

That’s what this entire Soul-Centered idea is about: becoming more ourselves. But that requires a degree of stillness so that we can be more fully authentic - not just about who we are with others, but about what we think about ourselves. That’s not to say that we become self-centered or self-indulgent. But it’s important that we reflect on our true selves. The thing is, if you believe each of us is created in God’s image, then spending time reflecting on the image within us becomes sacred time. It is an act of experiencing God in the commonplace… in life… even in me.

Daily prayer: Lord, help Me see Myself as Gift and Reflection of You. 

Fri, Jan 17 - Do Nothing

We’re here on the brink of the weekend. So, what are your plans? If you’re like me, you’ve always got more than enough to do. But here’s a novel, Sabbathy, Jesusy idea. Carve out some time this weekend to… do nothing.

Maybe this weekend doesn’t work for that. But seriously, the next time you find yourself with some unscheduled time, fight through the impulse to fill it up. And if you don’t ever find yourself with unscheduled time, then schedule yourself some unscheduled time! I realize you may not be accustomed to the peace and quiet of doing nothing. That may sound like something you’d feel guilty about, or something that would just bore you. But at times, to go deep into our souls, we need to pass through the stillness of boredom. It may take a little of that to teach us how to simply sit and be. 

By the way, you can do nothing but still be present and engaged in life; indeed, that is the idea. That stilled nothingness, free of the distractions of work and emails and texts and the news and social media (yes, even that) can help us to reboot and find a clean start. That’s easier said than done, I know. That’s why it must be intentional.

I know, when time is at such a premium in our lives, that doing nothing may sound like a pipe dream - but a Sabbath nothingness today can help to fill your heart and shape your soul for the somethingness of tomorrow. As John Ortberg writes: “Whether with an entire day, or periods of time set aside every day, your soul needs rest. Not a change of scenery or a spiritual retreat — those are fine and may contribute to rest. But to remain healthy, our souls need solitude with no agenda, no distractions, no noise. If someone asks you what you did in your ‘time apart,’ the correct response should be, ‘Nothing.’ Doing nothing does wonders for the soul.”

In lieu of a daily prayer today… just take a few moments to breathe… deeply… and do nothing. 

Thu, Jan 16 - Fruitfulness

We are made for fruitfulness - but fruitfulness is different than achievement or accomplishment. We’re often driven by latter, while we are made for the former. As we talked about Sunday, when Jesus says, “I came that they might have life more abundant” (John 10:10), he wasn’t saying that we should have an abundance of things in our lives, or an abundance of awards, achievements, accomplishments and accolades. There is a difference between a life of abundance and an abundant life. What we truly long for, what we desire in our souls, is MORE LIFE IN OUR LIVES.

Fruitfulness is not something we pour into our lives; fruitfulness naturally spills out from us when our lives are filled with life. The bearing of fruit is something talked about repeatedly in scripture. In fact, it’s the first command given to humanity in the Creation story. After God creates humanity in God’s image, male and female, the very next verse says: “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’” (Genesis 1:28). We are made to be fruitful.

We’re created out of the overflow of the Good Life that is God, made to create more overflow of that goodness. And as long as we stay grounded in that Spirit - as long as we stay soul-centered - the fruit that our lives produce looks like this: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). An abundant life is a life overflowing with all of that!

So the question then becomes… how do I produce more of that kind of fruit in my life? It may seem somewhat counter-intuitive, but the answer is not to work harder to produce that kind of fruit. Hard work produces achievement; fruit is produced naturally. But fruit is only produced naturally when the fruit-bearer is receiving the proper nourishment. You don’t get more or better fruit from a plant by coaxing it out; you get more and better fruit by making sure the plant gets the proper amount of light and that the soil is rich and well-watered. As John Ortberg puts it, “A tree’s job is not to try to bear fruit; the tree’s job is to abide near the water.”

When we find ourselves lacking in the abundant life fruits of the Spirit, we should ask ourselves this: Where, and in Whom, am I abiding?

 Daily prayer: Lord, help me to abide in You.

Wed, Jan 15 - Restoring My Soul

Psalm 23 is probably the most well known of all the psalms. Many of us associate it with the comfort we seek after the loss of a loved one, as it is a text we most often hear at funerals. And that is an appropriate use of the psalm; but that is not its only use. It’s a psalm that is about restoring our weary souls. Listen to - don’t just read, but listen to - the opening two verses:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.”

He restores my soul… And how does our Shepherd Lord lead us through that process of restoration? He makes me lie down. He leads me beside still waters. Restoring our souls, at least in part, as about stillness.

Now, I know that being still is much easier said than done in our culture - which is why we have to be especially intentional about doing it. We have to incorporate times of stillness into our daily and weekly lives so that we can simply breathe in the restorative goodness of the life and love and God we’ve been gifted. And when we do that consistently and habitually, our restored souls can deal with the busyness of life without becoming hurried and harried.

There is a difference between being busy and being hurried. John Ortberg puts it this way: “Being busy is an outward condition, a condition of the body. It occurs when we have many things to do. Busyness is inevitable in modern culture... There are limits to how much busyness we can tolerate, so we wisely find ways to slow down whenever we can. We take vacations, we sit in a La-Z-Boy with a good book, we enjoy a leisurely meal with friends. By itself, busyness is not lethal. Being hurried is an inner condition, a condition of the soul. It means to be so preoccupied with myself and my life that I am unable to be fully present with God, with myself, and with other people. I am unable to occupy this present moment. Busyness migrates to hurry when we let it squeeze God out of our lives... I cannot rest in God with a hurried soul.”

I love the distinction Ortberg makes here. Busyness is sometimes beyond our control; but hurriedness is how we handle our busyness on the inside. It’s a challenge, but you can lead a busy life and still have a life of restfulness. Being still and resting in God is not just about stopping our outward activity, although that does help. But even more importantly, restoring our souls is about stilling our multi-tasking minds and hearts long enough to rest in the One Who is With Us and In Us.

Lie down… on the inside.

Daily prayer: God, I set before You my busyness - everything that makes me scattered and hurried. Make me lie down.

Tue, Jan 14 - Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry

In Sunday’s message, I mentioned one of the primary obstacles to us getting in deeper touch with our souls is the hurried and harried pace of life today. John Ortberg writes about that in his wonderful book, the me I want to be. Ortberg shares that after taking a lead position at one of the largest churches in the country, he recognized that he needed to find ways to maintain spiritual balance in the faster pace of the ministry in which he was engaged; so he reached out to his spiritual mentor, Dallas Willard, for advice. Ortberg described his new church setting to Willard, the pace of his work, and the new rhythms of his family’s life in Chicago. Ortberg writes, “I asked my wise friend, the most spiritual man I’ve ever known, ‘What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy, to be close to God and to be effective as a family man and a pastor?’”  A long pause ensued before Willard finally replied, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” 

Ortberg eventually came to realize that his mentor was speaking about one of the most ancient of spiritual truths and practices - he was talking about Sabbath, the need for all of us to simply STOP at regular intervals in our lives, so that we can breathe in and breathe out, so that we can remember who we truly are.  As Ortberg writes: “Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry can destroy our souls. Hurry can keep us from living well. As Carl Jung wrote, ‘Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.’”

We live in a driven society – driven to succeed, driven to achieve, driven to keep busy. You can even hear it in the way we speak to one another in daily life: “What have you been up to? What did you do today? What did you get accomplished?”  The problem is, constant activity does not draw us near to God, and it can even get in the way of us knowing our true selves. Jesus knew this. That’s one of the reasons he routinely withdrew from the crowds and activity of his ministry, as important as it was. Jesus didn’t wait until everything was checked off of his to-do list before taking a break. And he taught his disciples to do the same: “Come away to a deserted place by yourselves and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31). What Jesus was teaching them to do, and what Dallas Willard was recommending to John Ortberg, was to slow down… and to remember the Sabbath. Sabbath is not as much about going to church on Sundays (even though that’s something I’d love for you to do) as it is about intentionally creating space in our lives so that we can experience God’s abundant grace.

Daily prayer: Lord, help me create space for your grace.

Mon, Jan 13 - God at Rest

Our theme for this week is that in order to become soul-centered, we must regularly incorporate Sabbath rest into our lives. The pattern of creating Sabbath space in life is one of the earliest things established in scripture. Indeed, it is how the very first story of scripture closes. The opening chapter of Genesis is the familiar story of God creating the heavens and the earth and all that is in them in seven days - or actually, in six days. On the seventh day, according to Genesis 2:1-3, God rests:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that God had done in creation.

Resting with regularity flies in the face of our societal and cultural expectations. Not only are most of us overly busy, but we seem to take pride in our busyness. We brag about the impossibility of our schedules. We post on social media about all of the things we have done that day or that week, and then make some comment about why it is all ‘worth it.’ Our busyness is like a badge of honor.

But that is not our design. The story of Creation is not so much about the mechanics of how life was created, a historical description of God speaking life forth, as it is about the meaning of why life is created, a theological prescription for how to see that God is undergirding all of life. And at the climax of that story, we are told that God hallows creation - God sets creation apart, recognizes its holiness and sacredness - by resting. It is a prescription for us, if we want to hallow our own lives, recognizing what is sacred and holy in and around us.

In The Rest of God, author Mark Buchanan puts it this way: “In a culture where busyness is a fetish and stillness is laziness, rest is sloth. But without rest, we miss the rest of God: the rest he invites us to enter more fully so that we might know him more deeply. ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Some knowing is never pursued, only received. And for that, you need to be still. Sabbath is both a day and an attitude to nurture such stillness. It is both time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart. It is a day we enter, but just as much a way we see. Sabbath imparts the rest of God — actual physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God — the things of God’s nature and presence we miss in our busyness.”

Becoming soul-centered is in part about learning to hallow all of life. That cannot fully happen without regular intervals of Sabbath rest.

Daily prayer of reflection: Lord, help me rest in You.

Sun, Jan 12 - Sabbath for the Soul

The focus of the message today was all about our need to regularly make space for sabbath - space to breathe, to create margin in life so that we might have time to discover more fully who we are and Who God is. Sabbath rest is about more than just taking time off from work or going to church on Sundays, although both of those things are important - especially the latter! :) It is about learning to rest in God, to trust in God, to abide in God.  In John 15:4-5, Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” As we mentioned this morning, the implication of these verses is that Jesus is already living in us, abiding in us. Even though there may be times when we are unaware of that presence, the presence of God in Christ is always with us, always in us. And Sabbath rest is one of the ways we more fully integrate that presence of God into our daily lives, in part by learning to stop doing so much and to simply BE.

One of the books I utilized in today’s message was The Subversive Sabbath, by A.J. Swoboda, who writes: “Sabbath is not new. Sabbath is just new to us… It is not as though we do not love God — we love God deeply. We just do not know how to sit with God anymore… As a result of our Sabbath amnesia, we have become perhaps the most emotionally exhausted, psychologically overworked, spiritually malnourished people in history… Bowing at the sacred altars of hyperactivity, progress, and technological compulsivity, our souls increasingly pant for meaning and value and truth as they wither away, exhausted, frazzled, displeased, ever on edge… Our bodies wear ragged. Our spirits thirst. We have an inability to simply sit still and be.”

This is the purpose for this entire series: for all of us to incorporate ways to simply sit still and be. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know I am God.” It is a powerful reminder that God is God… and I am not. When I stop trying to play God, and simply trust in God to be God… then, finally, I can find rest.

Let that be our prayer today: Lord, let me be still… and know You are God.

Sat, Jan 11 - Divine Reunion

In Sunday’s message, I mentioned that part of the root of the word ‘re-lig-ion’ is related to our word ‘lig-a-ment’... and that like a ligament, which serves as a connector between parts of the body, good religion is about reconnecting us - reconnecting us with our true selves, with others, and with God. And actually, getting more fully connected with our own true selves naturally leads to becoming more connected with others and more connected with God, because all of us are created in God’s image. While that image is reflected in each of us uniquely and differently, we all carry the image of the Divine in us - no exceptions. And if that is the case, then when I get closer to the image of the Divine within me, I become naturally more aware of the image of the Divine in others.

The implication here is that the divide between the human and the Divine is not nearly what many of us have thought or have been taught. One reason that we do our Sacred in the Secular series each summer, where we look and listen for the Sacred in secular music and movies, is because that sacred/secular divide is largely false. It’s a mistake to think so dualistically. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”

In That We May Be One, Thomas Keating writes that for the past several centuries, Christianity in the West has taken the unfortunate route of focusing more on doctrine (arguing over right and wrong belief) and less on the spiritual journey, and has largely resulted in us tending to characterize our spirituality as happening outside of God, because we generally view ourselves as separate from God. But he says that early parts of the Christian tradition recognize us as being in God, and God being in us: “God is not just with us, not just beside us, not just under us, not just over us, but within us, at the deepest level, and, in our inmost being, a step beyond the true Self... The movement is towards unity consciousness and experiencing the divine as our ultimate Self… Just by living and growing in consciousness, we are becoming, growing in God’s Self, in God’s presence, in God-consciousness. The ultimate consciousness is total Oneness in which God is all in all.”

To become more our true selves is to reunite with Who We Really Are, and Who God Really Is, and Who We All Are together. Becoming Soul-Centered is about a divine reunion.

Daily prayer: Simply reflect upon Acts 17:28, where Paul quotes a Greek poet regarding God -  “In him we live and move and have our being… for we too are his offspring.”

Fri, Jan 10 - the me I want to be

As already discussed, I think of the soul as that part of me that is most fully me. That means it is not the me I wish I were, or the me I try to be, or the me I might sometimes pretend to be, or the me I think my spouse or parents or boss want me to be. It’s not even the me I think I should be, or the me I think God wants me to be. My soul is who I actually, fully am.

One of the best books I know about discovering and reclaiming our true identity is the me I want to be, by John Ortberg. Ortberg discusses pretending at length: “Pretending to be someone we’re not is hard work, which is why we feel tired after a first date or a job interview or among others we feel we have to project an image for. We are drawn to transparency and long to go where we can just ‘be ourselves’. It is a relief to not have to pretend to pray more than we really do, or know more about the Bible than we really know, or act more humble than we really are. Inside us is a person without pretense or guile. We never have to pretend with God, and genuine brokenness pleases God more than pretend spirituality. If I am ever going to become the me I want to be, I have to start by being honest about the me I am.” 

We can never experience soul-centeredness if we aren’t honest - honest with God, with others, and with ourselves. Our pretending and masquerading, our pretense, gets in the way of us living from the depths of our soul. It muddies our inner waters to the point that it’s not all that uncommon for us to lose sight of ourselves. We grow so accustomed to trying to be or pretending to be someone or something we aren’t that we eventually don’t actually know ourselves - at least not as deeply as we would like.  To live the “life more abundant” that Jesus came teaching about, we need to live from that deeper identity, from the heart of our souls.

Ortberg also writes: “I began to realize that what I really want isn’t any particular outcome on any particular project. Those are all just means to an end. What I really want is to be fully alive inside. What I really want is the inner freedom to live in love and joy… When I was going to school, I was preoccupied with good grades or getting cute girls to like me. As the years went by, I became preoccupied with work and my circumstances because I thought they would make me feel alive… But life is not about any particular achievement or experience. The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become. There is a me I want to be.”

Daily prayer: Lord, I want to be fully alive. Help me… become more fully me.

Thu, Jan 9 - Packing Up Christmas

I’ve spent part of the last few evenings packing things up from Christmas - the lights, the trees and ornaments, the snowmen and Santas and various decorations scattered throughout the house. And the nativity scenes - about a dozen of them. Being in my line of work, it’s not an uncommon gift to receive from family and friends when they see one that stands out in some way. And I’ve purchased a few of them myself, with favorites being from mission trips to Mexico and Ecuador and one I bought this year in Bethlehem.

The truth is, I love nativity scenes… which is kinda funny, given that I have doubts about the historicity of the scene they depict. Like the Creation stories that begin the book of Genesis, I read the Christmas stories less as literal tellings of “here’s what happened” than as a spiritual revealing of “here’s who we are.” They are less about fact than they are about truth - which ultimately, for me, makes them that much more powerful. 

I don’t mean to be controversial by suggesting I don’t read the Creation and Christmas stories literally. But I think it’s important to state it, for a couple of reasons in particular. First, because if we hope to become authentic in our spirituality, we should be honest. And second, I think we are more apt to experience the Bible as needed food for the soul if we approach it with a heart searching for deeper truth rather than a mind that just asks, “Did that really happen?” So when I read the Christmas stories seeking truth, what I find is not just a story about a miraculous birth of a singularly miraculous man, but a story of the intimate relationship between God and humanity - a story about a God who dwells with us, and indwells in us. 

Richard Rohr writes, “One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life, and not through purity codes and moral achievement contests, which are seldom achieved anyway.” Or as Mary Beth Ingham puts it, “In the most concrete we discover the most ultimate. That is what it means for God to become one of us. The concrete individual who lived in the Middle East 2000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth, was both divine and human. So what does this mean for us? We are called to see the greatness of God in the smallest of things. We see divinity within humanity. We discover in ourselves a light within, and we discover in every human being… and in everything that exists, an inner light that is a gift from God.”

This is Incarnation - God becoming flesh - and it is key for me. It’s why, while I’m currently packing up Christmas, each year I leave one of those nativity scenes set out. It serves for me as a reminder that this is how God comes most powerfully - in the midst of the darkness and stench of a stable, in the outback of life, where ordinary people gather in hope of something new, something more. It reminds me that the Divine is most often revealed thru people - even us. 

It reminds me that while I’ve packed up most of the Christmas decor, in some way, Christmas is packed up in me.

Daily prayer: Joy to the world, the Lord is come… to me, and in me.

Wed, Jan 8 - Remember Who You Are

I closed Sunday’s message with a brief clip from one of my favorite Disney movies, The Lion King. In the scene, young-lion-cub Simba has grown into young-adult Simba, but is so haunted by what he sees as his culpability in the death of his father that he remains disconnected from his tribe, his heritage, and his identity. At this point he meets Rafiki, a spiritual guru, who tells him his father is alive… and then leads him down a long, dark, winding pathway thru the woods to the edge of a deep pool, whereupon he invites Simba to look down to find his father. Simba looks, and is disappointed to see only his reflection… until Rafiki disturbs the waters and tells Simba to “look harder.” When Simba looks again, in his own reflection he also sees the image of his father. As the scene continues (which we didn’t show in worship), Simba’s father appears in the clouds above and tells Simba, “Remember who you are!”

That may be the principal goal of the spiritual journey - to remember who we are. I’m reminded of these words of wisdom from John Philip Newell in Echo of the Soul:

“The Gospel of Christ, which means the good news of Christ… is not given to tell us that we have failed, because we already know that about ourselves. That is not good news. It is given to tell us what we have forgotten, and that is who we are. Spirituality does not consist of being told what to do. It consists of being reminded of who we are. Only when we know who we are will we be clearer about what we should do. The grace of repentance is about turning around in our lives, but it is not about turning around in order to become someone other than ourselves. It is not about conforming to some exterior standard of truth and good behavior. Rather, it is about turning around in order to be restored to what is deepest in us. It is about becoming truly ourselves. The gift of grace reawakens our memory of Eden. It begins to open again within us the gateway to our true naturalness… The problem is not our human nature. The problem is our exile from true human nature. Christ restores us again to ourselves.”

The path thru the woods on the way to becoming soul-centered may be dark and winding, and the waters of the soul may at first glance appear shallow and revealing of nothing. But stir them. Peer deeply into them. The deeper image within us reflects the glory of the image in which we have all been made. Remember who you are!

Our prayer of reflection today: I am God’s child. I am in God, and God is in me.

Tue, Jan 7 - Original Sin or Original Blessing?

In talking about becoming soul-centered, it is important for us to discuss what we mean by the “soul.” As I mentioned Sunday, for me, the soul is the most essential part of you - the part of you which remains undiminished despite the failings of your physical self. It is the most authentic part of you - the you that you are when you aren’t pretending, aren’t trying to be someone or something else. I believe that essence of you is the image of God in you. Genesis 1:27 says that each of us is created in God’s image: “So God created humankind in God’s image. In God’s image God created them; male and female, God created them.” 

So, if the depths of our souls are reflections of the God From Whom we come, then growing more in touch with our own souls brings us more in touch with God as well. As Richard Rohr writes: “The discovery of our deepest self and the discovery of God are the same discovery…  The discovery of our own soul is frankly what we are here for.  Your soul is who you are in God and who God is in you.”

This is a fundamentally different point of view than is taken by some traditional Christian teachings. Especially in Western Christianity, the idea of “Original Sin” - that human beings, at our very essence, are fallen and unworthy creatures - became foundational in many theologies. That idea gets tied back to the disobedience of Adam & Eve in eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 3. But is that really a story about the inherent sinfulness of humanity? I think it may actually be a story that is more about what we might call “original shame” than “original sin.” After eating of the fruit, Adam & Eve hide from God because they are aware of their nakedness and ashamed. Note, their nakedness is not new in the story; what is new is their shame about their nakedness. And while there are negative consequences for their disobedience, soon thereafter God fashions clothing for them. In compassion, God protects them from their shame. Far from being a story about God casting humanity into the depths of hell for all eternity due to their sinfulness, this story reveals God drawing near to us even when we screw up… because we are God’s, created in the image of the Divine, and therefore worthy of love and compassion. This is more about Original Blessing than Original Sin.

Becoming soul-centered is not about a list of ‘spiritual’ things you must do to ‘become a better person.’ It begins with recognizing who you are, created in God’s image. At least in part, it is about learning to love yourself, so you can be yourself.

Prayer for the day: Lord, I am made in your image. Help me to more fully love You by more fully loving and accepting myself.

Mon, Jan 6 - Letting my Soul Light Shine

It’s appropriate that our daily reflections on Becoming Soul-Centered begin on the Day of Epiphany, January 6, twelve days after Christmas. (Traditionally, in the liturgical calendar, the “12 days of Christmas” are the 12-day season between Christmas and Epiphany. Today marks the beginning of the season of Epiphany.) Among other things, it’s a time in Western Christianity when we remember the Magi following the light of a new star to find the infant Jesus. So a principal symbol of the season is light, the light that shines in the darkness and leads us to new discoveries, new manifestations of who God is… and who we are.

As we reflect upon what it means to become more fully in touch with our deepest, truest selves - what it means to more fully live from the depths of our souls - you might think about it as each of us individually, and all of us collectively, seeking to let our true lights shine. Light is a powerful metaphor in Christian spirituality. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world... Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt.5:14-16). It’s interesting - and powerful - that Jesus claims that WE are the light of the world, not just him! He seems to be saying that God’s Light is not just something outside of us by which we can see, but something that is IN us, that is part of who we are.

And… if we are all image-bearers of the same God of Light, then that same Light is part of each of us. Yes, it may be more well-hidden and buried in some than in others - but the light is there nonetheless. Thomas Merton, a 20th-century American theologian and writer on spirituality, wrote this in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander: 

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world...  

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud... I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed... But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.

• On this first day of our soul-centering journey together, reflect for a moment on what it means that God’s light not only shines on us, but in us.

• Let this be our simple prayer today. Meditate on it for a few moments, turning its phrases over slowly and repeatedly: Light of the world, shine on me. Light of the world, shine in me. Light of the world, shine thru me.