My own confession when encountered by this from Psalm 27:4,8 this morning.
"One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.." "'Come,' my heart says, 'seek [the Lord's] face!' Your face, Lord, do I seek."
Keeping my contemplative rhythms has been an important part of maintaining stability and even joy these days. However, like so many (most) others, I am distracted by the public discourse and anxiety and find my attention scattered.
"One thing" from the Psalm reminds me of the importance of a singular focus. Soren Kierkegaard's book "Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing" explores Jesus' beatitude "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." (Matthew 5:8) Purity of heart ius not about moralism but about not having our hearts diluted by anything other than the hunger to see God. In short, if seeing God is the only thing in your heart, you will see God.
The contemplative practice of centering prayer is to allow the things that distract from the yearning to see God to be carried off from conscious thought and relinquished into God's hands (Psalm 31:5). To be sure, plenty of distractions (often very good things) crop up daily, but these days they seem to be screaming for attention and contaminating my beholding the beauty of God's face. I am not at all suggesting that I've got this figured out for myself or anyone else, nor am I suggesting futility or defeat. I am only acknowledging how the Psalm called my to my central focus: seeing God.
Words for the day from the Psalms.
"In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until the destroying storms pass by." (57:1)
"The Lord "gathers the outcasts," "heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds." "The Lord lifts up the downtrodden." (147:2-3,6)
Just to be clear, I am not at all suggesting that some sort of piety protects us from reality, but that if we pay attention, we can discern that God is sharing the storms right with us.
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