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I wrote the following piece for the church newsletter. As mentioned before, this church is focusing on Spiritual Practices while the pastor is on sabbatical. Read on to hear about my spiritual practice of spaciousness....
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And so it has begun… our journey, alongside Jesus, that
leads to Jerusalem; our journey into the wilderness. I wonder what we will find
in the wilderness? Who or what awaits us? What struggles will we encounter?
What revelations will we have? What practices will bring us through? Perhaps
you have already started to discover the answers to these questions. Or,
perhaps you just have more questions.
It is in this place of wilderness that we begin to think about those things that separate us from God. Process theologian Marjorie Suchoki defines sin as “an extended event in an interdependent world… sin [against God] manifests in our violence toward the creation.”1 This includes harm done toward ourselves, others, and the earth. Sin doesn’t just occur between us and God but between us and everything God created in God’s own image. What we do, how we act, and the words we say all have power and we are not always aware of how much power we exude.
Lately, I have been incredibly mindful of how quickly I move
from one thing to the next without allowing space. It used to be that typing
teachers taught students to include two spaces between each sentence, but that
is no longer the case. In this world of efficiency and bureaucracy we now leave
just one space between sentences because who has the time for an extra
keystroke.
Likewise, I know I am generally inclined toward busy-ness. I
am always running from one thing to the next. Everything I have to accomplish
feels so important and it seems like if I don’t do it now, at the same time as
three other things, none of them will ever get done. No matter how much
meditation or prayer I do in the morning, thinking that it will calm my spirit
for the day, I still move at roadrunner pace.
For me, this year, Lent is about
discerning the ways in which I do harm to myself and others by keeping up this
pace of busy-ness. I don’t actually need to speed to get to church and I don’t
need to go from one meeting to the next without stopping. Jesus took time to go
to the desert and pray by himself. We too are called to follow his lead. Even
if it’s just taking one minute to stretch between staring at the computer and
walking into a meeting. Even if it’s just pausing to give thanks for my lunch.
Even if it’s ten seconds of deep breaths. I am committing myself to creating more room for spaciousness, and
therefore God, to abide.
