Meditation Archives - Page 4 of 19

Love changes things……more on love! My previous post was about how love can move mountains. In it I talked about what relational love and acknowledgment of God’s love can do for our souls. However, I failed to mention how love of neighbor, the topic of today’s Gospel, can change the world. In fact, one thing (love of God) leads to the other (love of neighbor).

I want to share a meditation I read today in The Word Among Us. It sums up today’s Gospel perfectly.

Meditation of Matthew 22:34-40

Songwriters have long proclaimed that what the world needs is love. But that lofty sentiment is a little vague on what love looks like or what it means to love someone. By contrast, Jesus had the weight of a thousand-plus years of revelation from God backing him up when he told some Pharisees that the greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor. The commandments themselves explain what love is and what it looks like.

So what does love look like? Here is one way to approach it.

Look at how God loves. He delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, and delivers each one of us out of the grip of our enemies -enemies like the pain of failed or abusive relationships, physical or emotional suffering, bitterness and resentment.

But how do we love God? By proclaiming that he – not forms of escape like alcohol, drugs, or pornography – is strong enough to deliver and restore us. We love him as we trust that God is just as willing to bring us out of patterns of sin or indifference as he was to bring the chosen people out of Egypt.

Let the knowledge of this love fill your heart. Let it move you to tell him about your love in return. Set aside the phone, computer, laundry or bills to pray and give thanks for all the ways God has shown his love to you. As you praise him for his kindness and goodness, you are opening yourself to receive even more of his love.

And how do we love our neighbors? As God’s love fills us, it will also flow out of us. It will expand our hearts and increase our capacity to love more humbly and more fully.

More than just performing acts of service, you love your neighbors by honoring and respecting them. You love by restraining angry words or lustful and insulting thoughts. You look at people the way God sees them, with the same love that he showers on you.

Yes, the world does need love, and God has shown us what it looks like. So receive that love as often as you can – and give it away even more!

“Jesus, teach me how to love!”

Just imagine how the current state of the world would change if we truly loved our neighbors as Jesus commanded. Love changes things. God bless you!

spiritually childlike — Spiritually childlike

Where are YOU now? Really, where are you spiritually? The older I get the more I realize I need to “check myself” before I judge or criticize someone else. Dear friends, I have a secret to share – you’re not perfect……..AND NEITHER AM I! Look in the mirror. We all have ways about us that are less than perfect, ways that can use adjusting. Actually, I would go out on a limb and say there are things about us that are most likely judged and criticized by others. I can guarantee that there are things we do and say ourselves that we would be quick to judge or criticize about others.

In this same vein, it occurred to me just this morning how much we expect of God. We expect so much but fail to deliver on what He expects of us. When things don’t go our way we have the audacity to ask him: “Where are you?” How often do you think God asks that of us?! Did I hear you gasp? Light bulb moment? I know it was for me this morning.

Spiritually spent?

So, why don’t you ask yourself today – where am I now, spiritually? Am I the same person I was 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago? Heck, am I the same person I was 2 weeks ago? Has my spiritual/prayer routine gone unchanged for decades? I would hope your answer is DEFINITELY NOT! I would like to believe I am not the same person I was just yesterday.

Of course, I can ‘t take credit for the positive changes I feel I’ve made up to this point. To God ALL the glory. All I can take credit for is “showing up” each day to receive all God has to offer me through prayer, meditation, Scripture, spiritual reading and community (friends and family members that inspire me to be better and do better). How important that is for me to show up so that He can transform me. He is the potter, I am the clay.

Inspired by Richard Rohr

I began thinking about this today after reading Richard Rohr’s Daily Reflection. You can read the whole thing here. Here’s the part that got my attention:

If we do not discover a prayer practice that “invades” our unconscious, and reveals what is hidden, we actually change very little over our lifetime………When you meditate consistently, a sense of your autonomy and private self-importance–what you think of as your “self”–falls away, little by little, as unnecessary, unimportant, and even unhelpful. The imperial “I,” the self that you likely think of as your only self, reveals itself as largely a creation of your mind.

Through regular access to contemplation, you become less and less interested in protecting this self-created, relative identity. You don’t have to attack it; it calmly falls away of its own accord and you experience a kind of natural humility……..In meditation, you move from ego consciousness to soul awareness, from being fear-driven to being love drawn.

Meditation

I started this blog over three years ago when my meditation practice was in it’s “infancy.” I wanted to share with others how amazing the practice of meditation really is. I cannot adequately express how deeply it has moved and transformed me. Want to know how I know I’ve been transformed? It’s quite simple, I’m an attorney who no longer feels the need to prove to others that I am right. Actually, I am an attorney who no longer feels the need to be right! That’s “off stage”, of course!

In addition to all that, there’s a particular peace and joy that resides in my innermost being. A peace and a joy that cannot be shaken no matter the circumstance. The peace and joy comes from feeling God’s Presence around me at all times. I no longer have the audacity to ask: “where are you now?” because I know, to steal a line from St. Augustine, He is closer to me than I am to myself.

So every morning I “show up” for meditation. I say yes to just sitting with God. I imagine myself on the potter’s wheel as I sit. Although I may not “feel” anything at times I know He, the potter, is at work. I surrender to His action and Presence in my life. Yes thoughts creep in every so often. There are days I feel a sense of consolation and then there are days I feel total desolation. It happens. It’s all normal and so life changing!