Roots & Fruits of a Contemplative Life: Cultivating a Soul That Loves God

Prologue
Invitation

Chapter 1: Cultivating the Garden of a Soul
Breaking Up Fallow Ground
Sink Down Into the Seed
Like a Well Watered Garden
Reaping What You Sow

Chapter 2: Cultivating a Relationship
My Soul Thirsts for You
Be Still and Know I am God
Delight in the Law of God
If You Love Me You Will Simply Obey Me

Chapter 3: Cultivating a Contemplative Life
Consider Well the Path of Your Feet
Train Yourself to be Godly
Fan Into Flame the Gift of God
Like a Spring Whose Waters Never Fail

Epilogue



PROLOGUE

Roots & Fruits is a love story. It is about cultivating a soul that loves God. But that love is really a response to a God who created that soul to love him.

The characters in this story are:
God, the gardener
Jesus, the seed
The soul, the soil
The Holy Spirit, the cultivator of the good soil
The contemplative life, the harvest.

A short synopsis of the story goes like this. The gardener (God) created us, loves us, and wants communion with us. He sent Jesus as the seed of that communion. The seed must drop down into the soil of our soul, but first that soil must be worked. Tools are necessary to work the soil and make it good soil to receive the seed and to properly nourish the seed so it will grow. The Holy Spirit provides a sacred space with the proper atmosphere and climate that will allow the seed to grow into a healthy soul that will create a contemplative life, a life in communion and in union with God. That life will create an abundance of spiritual fruit that will internally change people who will change the world.

It starts with an invitation …


YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO…

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden
And over burdened, and I will cause you to rest.
I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me;
For I am gentle and humble in heart
And you will find rest
For your souls.

Dwell in Me and I will dwell in you.
Live in Me and I will live in you.
Whoever lives in Me
And I in them
Bears fruit.
Amen

RSVP Desired


CHAPTER 1. CULTIVATING THE GARDEN OF A SOUL
The contemplative life is a life designed with the intention of being in God’s Presence, communing with each other, enjoying one another, and learning how to live a holistic and fruitful life. The place that intimate and personal relationship happens is in our soul. The soul is the garden where God comes and talks with us in the morning and walks with us in the cool of the day. It is our secret rendezvous spot where we have intimate communion with the One who loves us. Therefore, it is important to cultivate the soul, to keep it a healthy, welcoming, and sacred space.

I love tending a garden. There is something wholesome about having my hands in the dirt and watching the process of life first hand. It never ceases to amaze me to watch a tiny seed that I drop into the soil grow into a plant that eventually yields delicious fruits and vegetables. It is such a wonder. Of course, there is also a lot of work involved. Digging the ground and preparing the soil with the necessary nutriments; watering the ground and making sure the light is sufficient; picking out the weeds and pruning the plants so they’ll get full nourishment; watching for the proper time to harvest the bounty, not too early and not too late. And even after the harvesting to prepare the land for the winter rest and then next year’s crop. It takes strong yet tender hands, a watchful eye, and a knowing mind to assist nature in producing an abundant garden.

I have found comfort in the analogy that we as people are like a garden and that we have a Master Gardener. “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” (Isaiah 58:11).

The Master Gardener encourages us to be gardeners of our souls along with him, so we have the responsibility of tending to them. Tending means to take care of, to watch over, to manage, and to pay attention to. The garden of our soul is kept healthy by keeping the soil cultivated, and by providing it with the proper amount of water, air, and sunlight.

The soil of the values and morals we surround ourselves with must be deep enough so that our roots can grow deep, so that we don’t get blown away by the trials and adversities of life. The roots need inner springs to drink from. Our values and morals need to be built on firm foundations and on centered, well focused thoughts and ideas, not on what the most popular phase is at the moment. We need to take time and figure out what we really believe and feel, not just accept what we are told. We need to take time to seriously consider and reflect on life and what we want out of it. Being reflective, resonant, and ruminative helps us get to the marrow of things and not just blindly accept them at surface value. I personally believe that God made us good, and at the depth of our being that goodness reigns, and when allowed to, it will come forth and direct our actions.

The water of fresh ideas and perspectives must freely flow around us so we don’t get stale or stagnant in our thinking. This water needs to be free of toxic or contaminating material, of which the world is overflowing with today. Our ideas and perspectives come from what our eyes look at and what our ears hear. We cannot expect the world to censure life for us. I believe we need to be discerning in what we allow to filter into our brains. Discernment is not developed in a vacuum. It comes from being exposed and from testing things out. It’s our responsibility as adults to be our own censure. Some of that comes from intuition and inner feeling. I know how different I feel after spending time with a person who is very negative on life or speaks and acts in irreverent and disrespectful ways, and when I spend time with someone who is positive and tenderhearted and acts in reverent and respectful ways. It doesn’t mean I crucify and do away with the first. It just means that I choose to put myself more in the presence of the second. I look for people who make me feel good about myself, about life, and are constructive and productive in their ideas and actions. Then I make the choice to have friendships or relationships with them. In that way my soul is better tended and I have the potential for healthier growth. The same goes for TV or movies that I watch, books and magazines that I read, and music that I listen to. I figure out what is good and most productive for me and I do it. The things that I find toxic and actually harmful for me, I stay away from. I don’t have to have these influences banned or rid from society. I just don’t watch, read, or listen to them. Actually, if more people responded this way, the market for the negative and destructive stuff would dry up and go away.

Our souls need good amounts of ever flowing, refreshing, and cleansing air, and for me that is found in nature. Spending as much time outside in the open air as possible is a necessity for me. It brings a sense of freedom to my soul. Walking in the woods, sitting beside a clear flowing stream or river, canoeing around on a crystal clear lake is my idea of heaven come to earth. Nature heals us just by being in its presence. It has life flowing through it and all around it and that energy is very contagious. During a trip to the Berkshire Mountains one year, I spent time out in the cool, clean mountain air. As I stood overlooking acres of trees that seemed to be on fire with the reds and golds of autumn, I felt enveloped and embraced by the wind. I left those mountains feeling so strong that I believed that the storms of life and circumstance would no longer blow me away. I left those mountains feeling embraced, encouraged, empowered, and envisioned. I live now with the energy of the wind filling my soul, allowing me to meet and defeat the blows of life.

Last but certainly not least, our souls need light. To me this is the light, warmth, and connection to universal principles of life that come through spiritual enlightenment. This is a very personal experience and must be searched for by each individual. I believe there is a universal force, energy, higher power, the great I AM. It is important to be connected to that force, aligned to its flow, and sensitive to its call and its working within us. For me this light force is Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4).

Soil, water, air and light make a healthy environment for a garden and for a soul. But we must tend that soul and keep it healthy. We can do that by breaking up the fallow ground of our heart, planting the right seeds for what we want to grow in our garden, creating sacred space in our lives by keeping our gardens watered, and then looking with excitement at the harvest we will reap.

“Breaking Up Fallow Ground”

Most of the people I have known for the past 37 years are not a bit surprised that I consider myself a follower of Jesus, living the contemplative life. It’s who I am and who they know. That has not always been the case. Anyone who knew me during the first twenty-six years of my life, with the exception of my family, would be shocked, bewildered, and totally blown away.
I was “bad.” Even my mother who loves me very much would attest to that. Come and visit at a holiday meal where we kids, now grown ups, tell my mom about how in these days her style of parenting and punishment back then would have landed her in jail, and us kids in foster homes. She confesses that my brothers and sister would have a case, but I was bad and deserved her wrath. She’s probably right. I was a bad kid; today they would see it as acting out behavior, but back then it was seen as being bad. I wasn’t malicious or bad to others. I just did what I wanted to do, or had things done to me over which I had no control. For example, in kindergarten I had my own corner where I spent every nap time. I couldn’t sleep at 10:00 in the morning which was ok with the teacher as long as I quietly laid there. But unfortunately I felt the need to poke my nap mates to keep them awake with me, which definitely wasn’t ok with the teacher. When I was five years of age my mom found me in the alley with my “gang” of four boys, one girl, and me trying to pee in a coke bottle. The guys all could do it and I was determined not to be out done. To me, I was meeting a challenge, but to my mom, well it definitely wasn’t ok. We lived in North Philadelphia when my brother was born. My mother told me I had to come home at a certain time because she couldn’t come out looking for me. Of course, I stayed out as long as I wanted never thinking that might not be a good thing to do, being five years old in the big bad city. My mom just got madder and madder every evening. This did lead to my getting my first Hop-a- Long Cassidy watch, which helped a little. At six years of age I was sexually molested by my father. A special thing that dads and daughters do was what he told me. How could that be bad? I was obeying my parent. At eleven I got really mad one day and grabbed my ball mitt, got on my bike and ran away from home, for the whole day. I came home when it was dark and knocked on the door. My mother answered and told me they had already rented my room out, but I could come in and have something to eat if I wanted. She wasn’t about to let me see that she had been worried about me. In high school I defied everything my mother said by doing everything she said not to do. I started smoking, skipped school, hung out with the “hoods,” wore black and turned my collar up, which in those years was a sign of definite defiant coolness. But I did continue to obey my father and was molested by him on a continual basis.

I went to college and got into the 60’s scene big time, and all that involved. I got put on academic probation my first year, flunked out the next. One night all my rebellion and defiance came to a head. I was fed up with obeying my father, expressed my hatred of both of my parents, and moved out of the house. I moved in with a family I knew from camp and got a job. I spent a couple of years under the influence of some sort of alcohol from morning to night, often waking up places not knowing where I was. Then I moved in with a friend who I found out later had real “anger issues” and used to take them out on me. I considered myself a pacifist so I never hit back. That lasted a year, until she moved out and I found myself alone, and a mess. Not much contemplative living in those twenty six years. But one day all that changed.

In the early 1970’s the Jesus Movement happened. It was very similar to my good ole hippy days, except Bible studies replaced pot parties, and Jesus music replaced the angry antiwar music that seemed to use the F word a lot. Jesus’ name was everywhere. Something was definitely in the air, something even I could feel in my state of numbness. A friend of mine from camp became a Christian and she started sharing with me about what that meant to her and what it could mean to me. I told her that God and I were just fine thank you; it was everything else in my life that pretty much sucked. She spent time with me, and took me to coffee houses and other Christian events. One Sunday she asked me to go to her church, a little Baptist church that sponsored the coffee houses we had been going to. I don’t remember what the preacher said, or much else about the service. My friend dropped me off at my apartment and I went inside and just sat on my bed. I was miserable and extremely lost and alone in this life and I just started to cry. It was then that I felt a Presence in the room, someone just holding me and allowing me to come undone. I don’t know how long that lasted but at some point I stopped crying and knew something had happened to me, something deep inside of me. That Palm Sunday, April 15, 1973, at twenty six years of age, I became a different person, a new person. My life changed forever.

Needless to say there was a lot of fallow ground to break up. Years of hate, hurt, abandonment, resentment, rebellion, and just messy living needed to have the rakes and shovels brought out and the breaking up of the hardness of my soul take place. It was difficult, painful, and at times very dark. But I was ready and I was willing, and for the first time in my life I knew Someone was right there with me; that Someone was Jesus and for thirty seven years he has remained right there beside me just as he was then, as my soul was repaired, restored, and rejuvenated. It took a lot of work to get to where I am now, the calm, cool, and collected contemplative that people know. It took time and work but I got myself on a good foundation. Of course, I am far from perfect, I still mess up, and there is still plenty of work to do, but growing is an on going process. I heard Maya Angelo in an interview one time. She was asked, “Are you a Christian?” She smiled and responded, “Not yet.” My response to that is a smile and a good quakerly response of, “This friend speaks my mind.”

I have found that in gardening, the more I keep current with keeping the ground cultivated and the soil fertilized, the easier it is come the next planting season. I believe that is true in the tending of our soul as well. It is a part of the life process and we will be in process of becoming what we are to be as long as we are alive. My friend Brian McLaren wrote a song about that process. “It’s such a joy to be becoming, to know tomorrow I’ll be more than I am today.” Isn’t that what makes life interesting, fun, enriching, and well worth the journey? I think, no, I know it is.

Obviously it takes some steps between the time when you wake up to what a mess you are and you begin singing Brian’s song. There is nothing instant in real deep change and growth. The tools are sharp and the breaking up is painful; but knowing that, you begin the process of breaking down and emptying out so that something beautiful can grow.

The first step is love, God’s love for you and the fact that you are full of potential that has been there all the while. Most farmers don’t just randomly pick any spot to plant their crops. They look with vision for the potential for growth and then they begin to work at accomplishing that vision. God has a vision for you. He created you and will work with you at accomplishing that vision. David knew that when he wrote Psalm 139:13-18.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know them full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.

Accepting God’s love down in the deepest part of your being is the first and probably most important step in breaking up the hardness of your heart, your soul. It is a necessary step in all the other steps as well. That means you have to get to know God on an intimate level and that is accomplished by spending time with him, talking to him and asking all those difficult questions of why me and where were You? I did that by reading the scriptures and being honest with God about how I was feeling. The scriptures are full of people questioning God. Jesus even questioned God on the cross. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) God wants honesty, not platitudes. Sometimes he will answer, sometimes not. But there is something in the honesty of being able even to ask the questions that turns into a trust in the relationship that makes the unanswered questions lose their power and control over you. I don’t pretend to know how that happens but I have experienced it and I know it is true.

Once that foundation of love and trust is growing, it is necessary to purge the hindrances to that seed of love. Hindrances such as hatred, unforgiveness, self defense, and defiance. The deeper one has been hurt the harder these things are to release. But they truly must go.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me’ and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23, 24).
I spent a lot of years hating my father. Forgiveness was out of the question. I was wronged and spent a lot of time defending my self and being defiant to any one who said I was only hurting myself by living in these feelings and attitudes. It took me a long time to realize they were right and even longer to acknowledge they were right and do something about it. But I remember one day hearing someone give a talk on the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I can’t remember the whole talk but the key moment for me was this: “When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (John 11:44). All of that stuff, the hatred, unforgiveness, self defense, and defiance are nothing but the grave clothes I had wrapped around me. Lazarus was brought back to life from the dead, just like I was that Palm Sunday. I needed to rid the grave clothes and put on new garments. The old ones where stinky and of no use and needed to go. When the prodigal son returned home after squandering his wealth and his life in indulgent living, his father was so glad to have him return that he told his servants to “Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again” (Luke 15:22-24). We are new beings when we enter into a relationship with Jesus. Our old stuff won’t do any more. It needs to be taken off and removed and replaced with the new feelings and attitudes of love, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion, for ourselves and for those who have wronged us. That doesn’t mean what they did was right or that they will get off scott free. It does mean that it is God’s business with them and we need to let go, stay out of it, and trust God.

Breaking up the fallow ground of our hearts, our souls is hard work. But it is the most wonderful and worthwhile work you can ever do. It results in good soil, fertile soil, rich and healthy soil, to plant seeds in, that will grow into healthy and sustainable lives that will bring forth good fruit in God’s time.


“Sink Down Into the Seed”

The fallow ground is broken up and prepared; now it is time to plant the seeds that will grow in our soul and produce a healthy and sustainable life. It is at this point in the process of development that we have choices, important choices; what we plant is what will grow.

Planning a garden is fun but it can also be challenging. What are my expectations from my garden? Do I simply want to grow flowers to use for decoration; do I want to grow one kind of crop in order to sell commercially; do I want to produce my own food so that I can enjoy fresh vegetables and not be dependent on the food from the store that comes from people and places far away that I do not know; do I want fresh food only for the summer or do I want to grow food that I can prepare and process to last the year until the next garden? Once I have decided my expectations I have to plot the garden so that a plant that grows on big, extending vines doesn’t crowd out a plant that doesn’t. Some plants are not compatible with each other so I can’t plant them next to each other. Where is the morning sun needed for certain plants or afternoon shade for others? Many decisions go into the planning. But all of them are made with the goal of providing “good fruit” come harvest time.
The same kinds of decisions are necessary for our growth as individuals. What kind of person do I want to be; how do I want others to see me; what do I like to do and what don’t I like to do; what is my temperament; how do I relate to others; how do I want to relate to others?

Many decisions go into our growth, but all of them are made with the goal of being in alignment with how God created us and in providing “good fruit” in our lives.
When I am planning my garden I use seed catalogs, past personal experience, and advice from other gardeners in making my decisions. I use similar resources when deciding what seeds to plant in my soul. My seed catalog is the Bible. It contains all I need to know about what God expects from me. Personal experience is an important teacher, both for showing me what works and also what does not work. And there is a wealth of knowledge, in the Bible and in books and biographies available about how other people have lived their lives in God, so we are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) to help us in our search for the right seeds.

The Bible tells us what God considers the “only one thing needed” as Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said in Luke 10:38-41. Spending time looking at how Jesus lived his life here on earth, how he taught his disciples to live, and still continues to teach us how to live, is a good start to deciding what kind of life we want to cultivate and grow. Reading and studying his teachings and planting them as seeds in our soul will certainly produce the good fruit God requires and we desire. I find the teachings in Matthew 5-7, known as the Sermon on the Mount, full of seeds I desire in my life. Being meek, pure in spirit, merciful, a peacemaker, loving my neighbors, caring about the needy, not judging others, and trusting God for everything are fruits I want to develop in my life, so I plant those seeds.
It isn’t just Jesus’ teachings that I look to. Thomas a Kempis once said “Let it be the most important thing we do, then, to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ.” I read and I watch how he trusted in his Father and spent a lot of times alone with him in prayer, in good times and bad times. I read and watch how he interacted with his disciples, teaching and training them with so much love and attention. I read and watch how he interacted with those who were sick, or in need, and how he touched and healed them. I read and watch how he spent time with friends, enjoying meals and weddings and good conversation. I read and watch how he interacted and dealt with those who were antagonistic with him, who questioned him, persecuted him, and eventually killed him. I read and watch how in his darkest hour he still was so full of love that he forgave those who had beaten and crucified him. I read and watch how after he rose from the dead he gathered on the shore and prepared breakfast for his disciples, loving and forgiving them even after they had all fled in fear, abandoning him when he may have needed them the most. All of these qualities are seeds I want to plant in my soul so that I can live my life as Jesus led his.

Personal experience will also be a good resource for choosing seeds, especially for those of us who have been around a few years trying this and experimenting with that to see what works. I believe in instructing children in what is right and what is wrong. But even the best instructed child will become an adult and will want to figure things out for his or her self, which I believe is a good thing. Personal experience is a good teacher. You can instruct a person that fire is hot and explain all the rules for behavior around a campfire, but there is always going to be that one person who defies the rules and gets burned. That will be the one who won’t put his hand in the fire ever again. Being the defiant one that I was in my past, I have learned most of my life lessons the hard and often painful way. But I must admit, those are the lessons that stick. I believe we pamper people too much in this society. We leave nothing up to one’s own intuition. I am glad I am not a parent. I would be one that would allow the risk and then feel awful as I saw the pain my child might suffer as the consequence. But with the consequence comes the lesson. We have gone overboard in the protecting business. There is a rule and procedure for every danger, real and imagined, and it is assumed that this makes us safer from danger, harm, and pain. I’m not so sure. Sometimes the lesson is in the danger, harm, and pain. If people are surrounded by external warnings and directions that others have made for every circumstance, they come to depend on them and the internal intuitions don’t need to be developed and then become extinct.

People get lazy thinking someone else is always watching out for them and they don’t watch out for themselves, using the intuition God put within them. I worked as a camp counselor and camp director for twenty-five years. In the early years there were few rules and regulations and those that were there made sense, like don’t jump in the deep end of a pool when you don’t know how to swim. Near the end of my camp years there were books upon books of rules that didn’t necessarily make kids safer but certainly made them afraid. Wear shoes at all times, don’t go into the woods without a buddy, don’t get too near the lake, and don’t sit in the stream because it’s probably polluted, and on and on. When I was a kid I never wore shoes in the summer. How can you feel the grass tickle your toes or feel the coolness of the mud as you walk in the rain? I spent a lot of time playing in the woods by myself. Fairies and pixies don’t like crowds so they won’t come out if your buddy is there. How can you see the frogs and tadpoles swimming and feel the cool water unless you are standing in the water close to the bank? How can you cool off from a hot day if you can’t sit on a rock in the cool stream?

Don’t get me wrong. I think there is a time and a place for rules and regulations. I believe in keeping kids safe, which is why I would join them running barefoot, or walking in the mud, standing in the lake and sitting in the stream. But one day I literally could not get a twelve year old girl to remove her shoes to walk through a field of grass because she was told by someone not to ever take her shoes off outside because of the bacteria that was in the dirt. Kids can’t learn from experience if they aren’t allowed to experience things and neither can adults. And if personal experience is not allowed to be a teacher, we will always have to depend on other people making our decisions for us.

God didn’t create us and then give us a bunch of rules. The rules came because people stopped listening to the still small voice of God within them. He made people able to hear the inner right and wrong of things. They chose to listen to voices other than God, to the external voices that said, “Did God really say?” I think people know right from wrong inwardly. They just make wrong choices. The hope is that when they realize they made them, after they suffer the consequences, they will learn from that experience, and do different and better next time. I want to plant the seeds of the good choices I have made in my life, ones that I have seen work best for me and best for those who are around me because I listened to that inner voice; ones that I know in my heart of hearts, in my soul, are the choices God would want me to make.

Last, but certainly not least is the “great cloud of witnesses that surround us.” The Bible is full of them. That is one of the great things about the Bible. It lets us see how people have walked on this earth and how they have dealt with God from the beginning of time. The encouraging thing to me is that with the exception of Jesus all of them messed up at one point or another, and some of them messed up big time. It’s good to look for seeds among these biblical saints because they were human just like us, messed up just like us and yet still loved God and most importantly, were still loved by God, just like us. Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, and David are all listed as having great faith but none of them was by any human standard perfect. Abraham lied about Sarah being his sister and almost got her in a predicament with a Pharaoh; Sarah laughed at God’s announcement that she would be a mother at 90; Jacob stole his brother’s birthright; Moses killed an Egyptian and outright disobeyed God by hitting a rock with his staff; Rahab was a prostitute; and David lusted after another man’s wife and had him killed. No one in the New Testament makes the grade either; all of the disciples betrayed Jesus in the end; Peter outright denied knowing him; Mary Magdalene had been demon possessed and maybe a prostitute; Paul chased and tormented believers, until he became one; and so many others did things I am sure they regretted but still loved God and were loved by him. All of these people had seeds of good that God honored and wants to see planted in us. Spend some time reading about these legends of faith and find what made them precious in God’s sight. Those are the things that are the seeds that you want to gather and plant in your soul.

There are many more contemporary people, dead and alive, that we can look to as examples of a Godly life. It is fascinating to read about the saints and the mystics who have given us stories and examples throughout the centuries, right up to the present time. Francis of Assisi, Benedict, Ignatius, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Mother Teresa, Francis Shaffer, Jim & Elizabeth Elliot, and many more. People who are imperfect by human standards but perfect in God’s eyes. All of these people have lived their lives in many different ways and we can certainly learn from them and use their examples as seeds to how we want to live. I would suggest taking some time and exploring these people in the scriptures and in life. There is a lot we can learn. But it’s important to learn from them, not necessarily imitate them. It is important to be who you are and who God designed you to be.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well…
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:13-16).

So gather your seeds from all your sources and put them into the prepared soil of your soul; and then wait and watch for what God will do.


“Like a Well Watered Garden”

God created every living thing, so in that sense everything is sacred.
Our souls need sacred space, some place where we can go to be alone and be who we truly are, with no masks to wear, no role to live out, no label to live up to; just who we are. Then we make that an intentionally sacred space by inviting God to reveal His Presence to us.

The desire for one’s own space in this crowded world is a human desire not simply a Religious Rule for Monastics in our midst. Ethan Allen Hawley, the main character in John Steinbeck’s novel The Winter of Our Discontent,
had a place on the harbor by where he lived.

“That is my Place, the place everybody needs…It has no name in my mind except the Place, no ritual or formula or anything. It’s a spot, in which to wonder about things...I wonder if whether all men have a Place, or need a Place, or want one and have none. Sometimes I’ve seen a look in eyes, a frenzied animal look as of need for a quiet, secret place where soul shivers can abate, where a man can take stock of it…I call whatever happens in the Place ‘taking stock.’ Some others might call it prayer, and maybe it would be the same thing.”

The singing group, The Beach Boys, wrote “In My Room”, about such a place.

“There’s a place where I can go and tell my secrets to, in my room, in my room…
Do my dreaming and my scheming lie awake and pray.
Do my crying and my sighing, laugh at yesterday.
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears.
In my room, in my room.”

I remember reading about what Susan Wesley, John Wesley’s mother, did when she wanted time alone to pray. She would sit in a chair and pull her apron up over her head. Her husband and many children knew this was a time not to bother her or to make noise around her. This was her sacred space. Those who live in intentional community in monasteries and convents each have their individual cells to retire to for alone time. And of course we read in the gospels how Jesus often went off by himself to have time alone and to pray. Whether it’s a space to “take stock”, write, reveal our secrets, be alone, or simply pray, an intentional sacred space appears to be a universal human need.

I like to entertain the thought that this time of sweet communion is something God enjoys doing as well. Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting’…As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses…The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:7-11).

I experience that kind of intimacy with God as many other people do, and everybody can, if they intentionally make a place for that kind of meeting. When I was just beginning my Spiritual journey someone directed me into the Practice of having a Morning Watch. This is a time set aside to be in God’s Presence. It has also been called a Quiet Time or Devotional Hour. I am the daughter of a Navy sailor so I like the nautical terms. On a ship there are people who keep watch continuously around the clock. They take shifts, posted as lookouts and are responsible for the safe navigation of the ship. That involves making sure the ship stays on course, and looking out for any danger of collision with things such as icebergs or other ships. Having someone posted, looking out for them produces the ability to respond fully prepared to any emergencies that may arise. A watch is four hours. I would have wanted to be assigned the Morning Watch, from 4:00am to 8:00am. When I lived at the beach I committed myself to getting up to watch the sun rise every morning. I would awake at 4:00, grab a cup of coffee, my journal, and walk down to the beach. I would sit on the boardwalk as the dark clouds of night were slowly pushed away by the rising sun. As I watched the horizon I first saw the red glow and then the tip of the sun rise and fill the sky as night became day. It was glorious. I would stay, read my Bible, write in my journal, and then walk back to the house ready to begin my daily activities.

This continues to be part of my Spiritual Practice whether or not I am at the beach. It’s not always 4:00. Sometimes it’s 6:00. But the first hour or two of the day I spend time with God. It is the stillest time of the day. My mind isn’t all cluttered with my to-do list. It helps me to set my day on course and keeps me on an even keel for the rest of the day. I feel more secure that whatever circumstances come my way, I can handle them, because I am grounded and God is with me. This has been a Spiritual Practice for me for thirty-seven years now and will continue to be a sweet and precious time for me.

Every one is different and we all have our own rhythms, personality traits and temperaments. Spiritual Practice is not a one size fits all activity.
In this instance, the how a thing is done isn’t as important as that it is indeed done. So make it work for you. I do think there are some essential components to these times with God. We’ve already talked about some of them. Silence, solitude, and meditation on scripture are three things I would suggest are essential. The important thing to remember is that this is time with God and you, privately enjoying each other’s company and companionship.

For me the environment I am having my Morning Watch in is important. If I am at the beach or near a beautiful spot that is outdoors in nature that is where I will be. There is something about watching the sun rise during a Morning Watch that makes it even more special. The rest of the time I am in my room, sitting up and cuddled in my blankets. My brother has his Morning Watch while riding his bike and listening to a sermon or religious music on his walkman. Some people may take a walk or simply sit and rock on the porch. The important thing to remember is that this is intentional time with God. What you do with that time is up to you but it probably should be consistent and in a private place.

Rituals have a lot to do with creating sacred space. I love rituals. For me they are tools to help me bring remembrance and meaning to my life. Unfortunately, in our society, rituals have often become routine and have lost their flavor and are done many times without any thought at all about what the observance is supposed to bring to mind. Rituals should bring forth a spark of life and passion to the soul. Their images should ignite the storerooms of our memory with vision and true meaning and bring warmth to our mind, soul, and spirit. Rituals are to be a spirit of aliveness. They are a connection to the past that make us mindful of the present. You can benefit from observing the rituals that are a part of your life already. You can make them sacred space and sacred times. What rituals do you observe; why do you observe them; what do they mean to you; can you see them as sacred space?

My family has many rituals. I am sixty-three years old and we have celebrated Christmas the same way for all those years. We always go to church on Christmas Eve for a candlelight service. We sing “Silent Night” in the candlelit room and tears always come to my eyes. Then we go home and trim our Christmas tree and eat chips & dip and drink egg nog. We open our family gifts from one another and then put our empty stockings on the foot of our bed and go to sleep. We are awakened on Christmas morning by the youngest child; we each bring our filled stockings in the oldest child’s room (that would be me) to empty them; we go to our parent’s room and show them all the stuff Santa left, complete with tangerine and nuts in the toe of our stocking. We then line up, shortest to tallest and go into the living room filled with packages under the beautifully decorated tree; we each take a turn opening a gift and go around in the circle until all gifts are opened; then we have breakfast consisting of orange juice, sticky buns, and donuts. Then it’s off to play with our new stuff. Even as adults we still perform this ritual as those who still can assemble at Mom’s on Christmas Eve. The people change due to death or marriage; I am now the shortest in the line to go into the living room, and the youngest child now calls from Denver to wake us up, but the ritual continues on. If the time ever comes that I will be unable to be present physically at this event, my spirit will be connected and my mind will remember the step by step ritual and will bring warmth to my soul. Christmas is truly sacred space for me.

Part of my quest of filling my life with lots of sacred space involves filling my life with rituals. Before I write I light a candle, preferably a lilac scented one; I use a specific pen for specific writing (my journals are all written in purple ink). I have baskets of rocks and shells all over my room, to remind me of the ocean; I have pictures and sayings on my walls that are special to me. I create sacred space by creating an atmosphere through ritual and wait for the spark to light my imagination and set aflame the energy of my creativity. Rituals have been an important addition to the life of my soul and bring the Presence of God into my daily tasks and routines.

We should also create sacred space for others to come and be in God’s Presence as well. My home is like a sanctuary to me. This can be a sacred space, not only for you but also for all who visit. My friend Brian McLaren wrote a song called “Every Step I Take” for a friend’s wedding. The words express my hope for my home as a sacred space.

“And if it’s in Your plan I’d like to have a home,
Where doors are always open to the hungry and alone.
We pray that all who’d enter taste the flavor of your love.
That we’d reflect on earth the beauty of your home above.”

God created everything, so in a sense everything is sacred, every space is sacred. But I think we forget at times. That is why it is important to be intentional about creating sacred space, for ourselves and our private times with God; for our family and friends so that they may taste and enjoy the Presence of God; and for our community so that they can sense the love and joy that God is wanting to fill them with, especially in these troubled times we are experiencing. God’s Presence is everywhere; it’s time we live in that Presence and share it with all those souls who come in contact with us. Let’s be intentional about creating sacred space in our lives, in our homes, in our communities, and in our world.

“Reaping What You Sow”

Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28: 18-20).

For over two thousand years the Christian Church has taken this to be their commission. A lot of things have gone wrong in the name of discipleship. The fruit of Crusades, wars, ‘my way is the only way’ thinking, purging people from churches, legislating morality and life issues, and feelings of hatred toward all the ‘THEMS’ in our world, in my opinion is simply bad fruit and comes from something other than Jesus’ intentions. It grows from the seed of self, of human intentions, not the seed of God’s Word of love to this world. Most of the time the solution to correcting the wrongs done in situations is to throw the baby out with the bath water and disregard the whole commission. But maybe if we can look at what Jesus is actually saying and meaning, then we can redeem the concept of discipleship.
I am not a scholar and these verses are pretty clear cut to me. First of all, the authority lies with Jesus, so we need to be and stay in alignment with his way and in his spirit. Second, he is talking to people who are indeed disciples themselves. They had been abiding with Jesus for three years. They weren’t perfect but they did know what he taught and commanded and they knew the spirit in which he did both. It was a spirit of humility, respect, and most important, love for the people he was talking to. They were being taught the principles of the kingdom of God and those principles are inside work. Some discipleship methods resemble a cookie cutter, making all the people look and act the same as the person doing the discipling. As I read about Peter, John, James, Matthew, Mary Magdalene, and the other disciples, I still see their individual character traits and personality as uniquely theirs. They were being conformed on the inside while still being who they were as the individual selves that God created them to be. God didn’t use a cookie cutter when he created us so we would all look alike and act alike. Jesus didn’t use a cookie cutter to make all who followed him look and act the same. God made us all unique and that is how he wants us to remain. Our unity and conformity is in having him as the central operating principle of our lives, having his “spring of living water” flowing in and through us.

As long as human beings are involved in religion there will always be a need to watch carefully and discern true discipleship. True discipleship is following Jesus, being his pupil directly. It is being rooted in the teachings of Jesus, not someone else’s interpretation. It is remaining and abiding in Jesus, just as he instructed his disciples; “Abide in me as I abide in you…I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…My Father is glorified in this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples” (John 15).
These days a great deal of what we know about God and our spiritual lives come to us prepackaged and processed from preachers, teachers, and books containing well researched and predigested thoughts and ideas of the authors. I want raw and organic spiritual food and want to be a part of the process of growing, tending and preparing it as the source of life energy to my soul and spirit. I want to be a disciple of Jesus and be directly taught by him, through the work of the Holy Spirit. That means having a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, wanting to be fed and nourished by the life and teachings of Jesus found in the Scriptures and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This relationship is a choice to answer yes to the invitation he gave to his first disciples; to “come and follow me.”

CHAPTER 2. CULTIVATING A RELATIONSHIP

“My Soul Thirsts For You”

God wants an intimate and personal relationship with all of his creation. That is why he created each and every one of us. He is the initiator. Can you imagine that? God wants to spend time with you and me as well. That brings a chill down my spine to even think about it. The Almighty God, who created everything in this world, wants to spend time communing with you and me! When we make the decision to turn from what was and is and look to what can be, we have committed ourselves to a love relationship beyond all others. We will end our aimless wandering in the desert where our souls have become overgrown with the worries and cares of a world that offers neither rest nor hope. Our hearts will become soft and pliable so the seed of desire for God can begin to sprout. We will find rest. We will find hope. We will learn how to live the holistic and fruitful life that was intended for us.
God’s intentions for us have as their core a relationship; to him and to one another. That is what the law of God and the teachings of the prophets and Jesus are all about. When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees about the most important command in God’s Law, he responded,

“Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it; Love others as well as yourself. These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them” (Matthew 22:36-40).

This life is not easy to live in the world today. There are so many things and so many demands for our time, all clamoring for our attention. It is difficult to hear the still, small voice of God gently inviting us to BE with him, commune with him, and simply enjoy his presence. To live contemplatively requires making choices to design our lives with that as the intention. We need to create an environment, an atmosphere and a climate that is conducive for communion with God. We need to prepare a place, create a space in our daily lives where we can intentionally BE in God’s presence.

I gather from reading the creation story in Genesis that God’s intention was to create human beings to be in relationship with him. He created Adam and Eve and then created a beautiful place where they could live with each other and with him. I love the thought of God walking in the garden in the evening and expecting Adam and Eve to join him on his walk. It brings to mind the hymn “In the Garden” that describes what my idea of a perfect place and a perfect way to spend the day would be.

“I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still in the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear the son of God discloses. And he walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, no other has ever known.”

Being a child of the sixties I saw that time as a cry to stop the madness of the times and return to a way of life that had become extinct in the drive for uncontrolled progress and living bigger and better. Joni Mitchell championed the call, “we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden” (“Woodstock”).

I have lived most of my adult life trying to do just that. I always sensed this emptiness that simply couldn’t be satisfied with anyone I was with or anything that I did. St.Augustine sensed that same emptiness when he finally realized and wrote that “our hearts were made for you, oh God, and they shall not rest until they rest in you.” It is amazing to me, as one who has looked for love in all the wrong places, that God was actually looking for me, wooing me, and wanting to commune with me. This made my desire to cultivate that relationship even stronger. Like David wrote in Psalm 63 I found my soul “thirsting for God in a dry and weary land where there was no water.”

My intentions at cultivating a relationship between God and me made me look for ways to be in his Presence. I wanted to go back to the Garden. I found some foundational elements that worked for me and may work for you. Those elements are being still, delighting in God’s law, and simply obeying the command to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart and to walk in union with him.

“Be Still and Know I Am God”

When was the last time you experienced true stillness? When was the last time you spent some quality time alone? Our overcrowded, chaotic, and noisy world makes stillness something that should be added to the endangered species list. We are assaulted on every side with robbers of our time, our energy, and our space. Our senses have become dull and numb by the over stimulation of sounds, sights, tastes, and feelings that surround and envelop us on a twenty-four hour a day basis. The still, small voice within us gets harder to hear and eventually becomes indistinguishable amidst all the other sounds. We become exhausted and soon the only down time for our body and mind is sleep and even that can be a time of unrest. The end result of all this disturbance is an unhealthy individual which yields an unhealthy society which yields an unhealthy world. More than ever we need to STOP! We need to give our mind, body, and soul a chance to be still and experience both an inner and an outer peace. Stillness is cultivated by the tools of solitude and silence.

For the first forty years of my life vacations were always family times, mostly to the beach or to a cottage on a lake. One particularly difficult year I decided to take my vacation all by myself; no family, no friends, just me. I was a little hesitant. I had always treated myself to alone time with weekend retreats to a hotel or often to a convent in Catonsville, Md. But a week on my own in a far away and strange place…this was a first. My beginning destination was the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts and that was all I knew as I packed my car, grabbed my map, and began my journey. I spent each day in a different little town. I had no company but my own. No one to share things with except me; no schedule to keep except the one I developed on a day to day, hour to hour basis. At first it felt strange but by the end of the week it felt so wonderful I didn’t want it to end. I began each day with a cup of coffee and my daily Practice of reading the Bible and writing in my journal. Then I would just wander, either by foot or by car around the place where I was staying. It was fall and I was in the mountains so needless to say it was beautiful.

Two things were beginning to happen due to the fact that I was alone. I felt I was getting to know myself on a very deep level. I learned to listen to me, hear what I thought, what I liked, and what I wanted. I’m not sure how your family is but usually when we all go on vacation together we play the “what do you want to do today game;” you know the one…”So what do you want to do?” “Oh I don’t care; whatever you want to do”; “Ok, let’s go walk on the beach.” “Oh, I don’t know if I’m up for a walk;” “OK, let’s go shopping.” “Oh, I don’t want to spend any money,” and so on. Then the same routine when trying to decide where to go for dinner. “Any where you want to go…oh no, not there, I don’t feel like Chinese food tonight.” I love my family but this was something I did not miss at all. I want to do this; I want to eat there. Decision made!

But besides becoming my own best friend and companion and enjoying the company, something else was happening. I became more and more aware of God’s Presence being with me all the time. Sometimes I’d even talk out loud to him, like “what do you want to do today?” Thankfully it was always what I wanted to do, no hesitancy at all. This intimacy and closeness to God was not necessarily a new experience, but it was more a conscious twenty-four seven thing now. And I liked it a lot. God was so very real in everything surrounding me in those mountains, but also consciously in everything within me, my thoughts and my feelings. I had found the joy of true solitude and it changed my life forever. The next year I did the same thing, for two and a half weeks. Now most of my vacations are by myself. Eventually I grew more in my need for solitude. For three years I lived at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware from October through April. Most of that time was spent in solitude and I can honestly say I was never bored or lonely.

Solitude has a fuller meaning than just being alone. It’s a connection with the still small voice that resides within us, a connection to the life force that creates our essence, our very being, and knows us intimately. It’s a place that needs to be tapped and developed and lived out on a daily basis. It’s my experience that true solitude doesn’t brings a feeling of loneliness because it is the place where one truly is, and a place where one is truly connected with God, the energy within all life, all created things. I have actually felt loneliness more in a crowd of people where I didn’t know anyone. I felt anonymous and unconnected. God knows me more intimately than anyone else. It’s the connection with Him that made the difference for me; the being known that made the loneliness disappear.

Solitude is necessary for creating sacred space where each of us can find and commune with ourselves and with God. In solitude we can experience true freedom as an internal experience not merely an external situation. We can find good safe ground from which to make life choices because we are in touch with what we truly want and need. We can judge our own work and creations so we are kept untouched and unaffected by those who offer either flattery or unconstructive criticism. In solitude we learn to be intimate with ourselves and therefore enabled to be intimate with others. In solitude we survive, for we find courage to confront whatever pain and suffering comes along.

Solitude has been used for cultivating a relationship between individuals and God for thousands of years. Jesus withdrew into solitude many times to commune with his own soul and with his father. The Buddha sat alone in solitude, seeking enlightenment and understanding. Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond to spend time in solitude and commune with nature. May Sarton, the author of A Journal of a Solitude, used solitude as a way of recovering from crisis times in her life; such as recovering from an illness or simply growing older. Many older people are forced into solitude, through the death of a spouse, and the death of their friends. Being alone can be very difficult but it can also be a true blessing. The choice is up to the individual how to approach the aloneness. God desires an intimate relationship with all of us. Let me repeat that. God desires an intimate relationship with all of us. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me” (Revelations 3:20). We may be alone in this life but we never have to be lonely. We simply need to open the door.

Silence also helps in cultivating a relationship with God. This is a double edged tool that includes inner and/or outer silence. Silence is difficult in these days where machines rule the world. The air is filled with sounds no matter where we go, some pleasant, some not so pleasant, but always present making noise. There are places you can go and find yourself away from the noise, but then you realize there is more to silence than just the absence of sound. I have found a few noiseless places. One was in the middle of an old growth forest in State College, Pennsylvania. Nature can often be noisy and even loud at times. Standing on the beach during a storm can be almost deafening, or walking in the woods and listening to all the little critters alerting each other of your presence can be noisy. I think that nature’s noise is different than human noise. It evokes more of an experience of connection with the created world rather than an invasion of the senses by things made by humans. But this old growth forest was still. As I walked among the trees, the world outside seemed almost to disappear, from sight and from sound. It was magical and so very still. I sat and just absorbed the space. I looked around expecting little fairies and pixies to come running out to join me. But there was nothing, no sound anywhere. It was awesome.

Another noiseless place I found was a convent in Catonsville, Maryland. All Saints Convent is a beautiful stone building on a hill in the middle of Patuxent Park. It is far removed from the residential street noise and the lights from the closest town. As I drove up the long and narrow driveway, I could sense the stillness. The Convent houses twenty nine nuns and commanded my silence the moment I walked through the big doors and down the long hall to check in to the guest room. The nuns are quiet in their speech and their movements all the time, but they observe what is called the Greater Silence every night from 8:30pm until after breakfast the next morning. Because of this Rule of Silence, sounds are nearly nonexistent, except when the nuns are singing their prayers. And even that had a sense of silence because of the reverence of the singing.

The first time I visited there I thought I had found heaven, but that quickly changed as I got unpacked and began my long awaited retreat. No noise to be heard, but for me silence was far from being obtained. My mind was noisy, filled with the worries and cares of my life events and circumstances. In future visits I remembered to leave those things at home, but this visit I had to work at moving into the silence that surrounded me. I walked around the grounds and soaked myself in the outward silence that place was providing. I attended the services where the nuns who lived there chanted and sang their prayers. Eventually I began to experience an inner silence. My mind finally laid itself down to rest and I found myself enveloped inside and outside by a sense of stillness. I didn’t read any of the books I had brought to read. I didn’t do any of the writing I had planned to work on. I simply basked in the stillness and the solitude of that precious place. The experience brought about a transformation in my life. I visit that Place often, both in reality and in my memory, in order to bring that stillness of soul into my life and to whatever situation and circumstance I find myself in the middle of. “Be still and know I am God” (Psalm 46:10). In the silence and the stillness I find truth and a peace that passes all understanding. I am able to see and hear clearly as God directs my path in the best direction.

I mentioned earlier that after my first visit to the convent I learned to leave the worries and cares outside of the sacred space I was entering. This takes some intention and perhaps a personal ritual of some kind. The convent had big iron gates at the entrance and the next time I went I stopped the car at those gates and said out loud, “I am leaving all my inner stuff here that might interfere with my enjoyment of my time at this place. I’ll pick them up on my way out (if I remember).” It worked so well I started using the ritual in other circumstances. I was a camp director and part of my orientation training to staff was that while they were at camp their total focus was to be on the kids they were in charge of. That meant their personal lives needed to stay out of the camp day. We had to climb a slight hill to get from the bus lot to the assembly area where we started our day. At the bottom of that hill was a big tree. I told them that every morning they had to go and put their hand on that tree and leave their personal lives there and then put their mind in camp mode. At the end of the day they were to touch the tree on their way out and pick up their personal lives. They thought I was a little nuts, but I was their boss and they did it. Of course it helped that I stood at the tree taking attendance for the first couple of days, but many of them continued the practice and told me it worked. A couple of them actually said when they picked up their personal stuff at the end of the day, they left the camp day behind as they touched the tree. Even camp can have “those days” when you’re dealing with 200 little campers and a boss who makes you talk to trees.

Whatever you can do to create that place of stillness inside of yourself and outside of yourself, do it. It is a tried and tested way for cultivating that intimacy between you and God. I highly recommend it on a frequent and regular basis.

“Delight in the Law of God”

I love the Bible. Even as a kid I remember sitting in Sunday school listening to the stories of all the Bible heroes; David and Goliath, Moses being put in a basket as a baby and then leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and then all the stories about Jesus. Our room had the picture of Jesus surrounded by children and I used to look at that and pretend I was the one on his knee, his favorite one. And at Christmas time I used to love the story of the little drummer boy who had nothing to bring but his drum to play for the new born baby in the manger and Mary acknowledged that was just fine by nodding her head.

I have grown up now and have been through the gamut of religions, theologies, and doctrines. I even left religion for awhile and like the prodigal son, this daughter wanted to play for awhile without the religious garb my mother preferred that I would dress in. But through all of that wandering I always liked to read the Bible and Christmas always was more than just a holiday; it was about Jesus and his birth in a manger.

After my “born again experience” on Palm Sunday in 1973, the Bible became my daily bread that nourishes me in every way. I just love to spend time reading it and studying it. It’s a way that I feel connected to Jesus and God. The Spirit speaks to me from its pages, letting me know how much
God loves me, gives me guidance and direction, and sometimes just pure enjoyment.
For about a year I simply read the Scriptures. I wasn’t part of a church and Sundays I just went out, got coffee and a donut and simply spent time with God. I found some books on how to study the Bible. The Joy of Discovery by Oletta Wald was a book I picked simply because of its title. It was a great help in teaching me different ways to study the Bible on my own. I got involved with a family who had opened their house to a weekly Bible Study to try and reach out to high school kids. My sister was a part of that group and they were going on a retreat and needed some adults to help out. I went on the retreat and ended up staying with the group for about five years. It was there that I learned the importance of not only reading and studying the Bible but actually having it be an important part of my life. I experienced what the Psalmist talked about in Psalm 1: delighting in the law of God, of meditating on it day and night, and that the person who does that would be like a tree planted by streams of water; well rooted and bearing fruit in season and prospering in what ever she did. Who wouldn’t want that to be what her life was like?

People do weird things with religion these days. They argue about it, defending their beliefs and doctrine. They see it as a bunch of rules and regulations that take the fun right out of life. Or they ignore it and don’t see how anything good could possibly come out of it. The Bible gets caught in the wake. It is seen as a weapon to beat people up with, a book that is simply written by men and a church that crave dominance and control and are willing to kill for it, a bunch of information that is worthless and useless to those of us who are now well educated and beyond legends, fables, and Sunday school stories. Or it goes to the other extreme, as being a book to be analyzed and argued over, and picked apart word by word like vultures pull apart the prey that they find to eat. It disturbs me that some people who are outspoken about the importance of the Bible are very far away from the principles that the Bible is made up of and even farther away from the principles of the God that the Bible is about. One principle I live by is not to blame God for what his children have done to his message.

The Bible is a love letter. It tells us about God and Jesus and how much they love us and want the best for our lives. If we put on those lenses when reading the Bible it will make a huge difference, not only in how we read the Bible but how we will live our lives.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should
be called children of God! And that is what we are! Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies themselves, just as God is pure (I John 3:1-3).

I have already shared some of the fruit of meditating on the Scripture expressed in Psalm 1. Psalm 19:7-11 lists many benefits of reading and meditating on the Scriptures.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
Reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure
and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold
than much fine gold;
They are sweeter than honey,
than the honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Who wouldn’t want to have their lives filled with all of those things?

Meditating on the Scriptures is like digging up the fallow soil in a garden in the spring. It breaks up the hard ground so that good seed can be planted and grow and produce good fruit. It fills your soul with God’s love and feeds all the needs that the heart and soul have. This is a practice that I guarantee will make a difference, a good and wonderful difference in your life. I believe this is how God speaks to us through the scriptures. Start today by reading the Psalms or one of the Gospels. The more you do it the more you will grow to love it. Trust me…this is one of those things I know for sure.


“If You Love Me You Will Simply Obey Me”

“God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising”
Ecclesiastes 7:30 Jerusalem Bible

"Obedience to the Call"

Jesus invites people to follow him and then teaches them a very simple way to live. We read in Matthew about Jesus as he is walking along the Sea of Galilee and he comes upon two brothers, Peter and Andrew, who were casting their nets out into the sea. Peter and Andrew were fishermen and were going about their daily work when Jesus came up and said, “follow me.” They responded immediately, dropped their nets, and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-20) As they walked ahead they came upon James and John, in a boat mending their nets, also going about their daily work as fishermen. Jesus called to them and immediately they dropped their nets, got out of the boat, and followed him (Matthew 4:21-24). Jesus invited these four men who were busy doing their work and they immediately dropped what they were doing and followed. Think about how truly amazing that was. Think about what must have gone through their minds as they settled down for the night on this day that forever changed their lives.


Andrew’s Journal: Monday:
"It was a great day for fishing. The sky was a bright blue, filled with white puffy clouds, and the sea was calm. Peter and I were working from the shore line today. This week was a good one, as far as our catches have been.
We are over our production quotas for the week already so there was no need to go out in the boat. We gathered the fish that come close to shore. James and John were in the same situation. They were taking the time to mend their nets that got a good workout this week.
I like these slow days. It gives me a chance to think about other things besides my job. I’ve been thinking a lot about what the Baptist has been telling us about this new guy in the village. He’s pretty sure this is “the One” he has been sent to prepare the way for. He was telling us about how when this guy Jesus came to be baptized, he knew he was the One. And as he baptized him a voice came from heaven and he saw a dove come and land on him. The Baptist said the dove was the Spirit of God and that this Jesus is the One we have been waiting for, the Lamb of God who will save us.
The Baptist has these visions and wild thoughts a lot, and gets all excited about them. But there was something different this time, something in his eyes that went beyond words. Later on this Jesus walked by us. The Baptist pointed him out. He said, “He’s the one.”
I looked over to see who he was talking about just as he looked my way. I felt something in my soul. There was something about him that moved me. I lowered my glance and he moved on. I was going to talk to the Baptist about it, but he got busy and I had to leave in order to get home before dark.
Throughout the week we were busy so I didn’t think about it very much, just every once in a while when I remembered those eyes looking at me and how it made me feel. I had mentioned it to Simon while out in the boat one day. We were taking a break and I shared with him what I had experienced. Simon is a great brother but he’s more of a get up and get it done guy and wonders sometimes about my more reflective nature. But he loves me and said that if this guy is who the Baptist says he is that would be great. Maybe then people could stop waiting around for this Messiah and get their minds back on the work they needed to be doing.
It amazes me how life can change in a split second. Simon and I had just cast our net into the sea when out of the corner of my eye I saw a man walking towards us on the shore. When I saw that it was Jesus I got Simon’s attention. “That’s him, the one I was telling you about.” Simon stopped and looked at Jesus as he got closer. “Looks pretty ordinary to me”, he said as he went back to finishing what he was doing. As we tied off the net and stepped back, Jesus came right up to us. First he looked at Simon and Simon looked back at him. “You are Simon, son of John. But I will call you Peter.” Then he looked at me and said to the both of us, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then he turned and began walking.
That was all he said. I still can’t believe it. Simon looked at me deeply in my eyes. I saw something in them that I hadn’t seen before, a light of some kind. We didn’t say a word to each other. We just picked up our staffs and the stuff we had with us and left our nets that were already almost full with fish, and started walking. By the time we caught up with him James and John were getting out of their boat, gathering their stuff and the five of us walked up the coast along the sea, not saying a word to each other. We stopped here for the night, had some food we had in our packs and still not saying a word we went to sleep, at least the others did. I was too excited to sleep. The day started out as just another ordinary day, and here I am, leaving everything behind and following a man the Baptist says is the Messiah we have been waiting for all these years. In a split second everything is different."

For these men to drop everything they were doing and follow someone they hardly knew certainly demonstrates great faith. Simple obedience was the response to Jesus’ call to follow him. No prerequisites, no classes, no expectations, no clearness committee, no requests for credentials. Simple obedience that was not demanded or even requested by Jesus. He simply invited and they responded. What would it take to cause that kind of immediate response? These men must have known the prophecies about the coming Messiah. Had they been praying for those prophecies to come about? Were their hearts connected in some way to God already so that they knew who Jesus was and that they could trust him enough to put their lives in his hands? Surely the soil of their souls had been worked and made ready to prepare them somehow for that invitation to follow. They were fishermen. They worked on the sea, surrounded by nature and far from the maddening crowd. They had time to commune with their natural surroundings, surroundings that God had created and that spoke without words of their creator. Their hearts had been prepared and when the invitation came, they responded immediately.

Jesus invites everyone to simply “follow me.” “Follow me” into a life lived in God’s Presence. “Follow me” to the place where we can commune with God and enjoy his love, joy, and peace. Are we living in such a way that we can hear that still small voice? Is the environment, the climate, and the atmosphere that surrounds our lives a space where God can come and walk with us in the cool of the day? Are we living simple enough to hear the call, immediately drop our nets, and follow him?

Most of us are not fishermen today so we probably would not be working on mending our nets when Jesus comes and calls us to follow him.
More than likely we would be doing something important either at home or at the place where we work, or go to school. What would you be working on when that call came, and would you be able to drop it all and simply obey?

"Obedience to God’s Law"

Some people complain about following Jesus because there are too many rules and regulations. In many systems of religion that is true. It seems that way in Christianity as well. Everyone knows about the Ten Commandments and if you have read Leviticus you will find many more. But when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees which was the greatest commandment of the Law he said only two. “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…The second resembles it; You must love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:34-40).
Jesus said that all of the Law and all of what the Prophets said hang on these two. Amazing and welcomed news for us simple folk! Easy and exciting to hear but difficult to do. It is humbling to think that the way to obey God is as simple as obeying two commandments. Remember, humans like to make things appear more complicated so we can look smarter and more sophisticated, and civilized. Or perhaps it is fear that makes us think that the more rules and regulations there are, the safer and more secure we will be. The Pharisees certainly thought that.

PETER’S JOURNAL: Sunday:
“These Pharisees are really starting to wear on my nerves. Everywhere we go they are there, picking on every little thing we do. We have dinner at Matthew’s and they show up complaining about the people we choose to eat and drink with. We walk through the fields and pick some grain to eat and there they come, whining about us working on the Sabbath. We forget to wash our hands and boom, there they are pointing out our mistake. Then they tried to trip us up about paying taxes. It is really getting annoying.
And Jesus, he can’t do anything right according to them. He heals a man’s shriveled hand, a man’s blind and he restores his sight, he cures a woman who has been ill for over eighteen years and what do they say…he’s doing work on the Sabbath! He casts out demons and they accuse him of being the devil, like that makes any sense at all. The devil casting out the devil! But the thing that really got my goat was dragging this poor woman whom they caught in adultery and wanted him to punish her.
They are complaining over and over again about this Sabbath rule. Do they not have anything better to do on the Sabbath than run around after us? And to top it off, after watching all this healing going on right in front of their picky, puny little faces, they keep asking him to show them
miraculous signs! No wonder he called them blind guides. What is wrong with these guys?”

There are books upon books of laws to be obeyed in order to be a good citizen of this country. There are books upon books of rules and regulations to “be all that you can be” in any job or vocation we may choose. And yes, there are even books upon books of rules and regulations about how to live the simple contemplative life. But the God who created us and the world we live in gives us just two simple commands. Love God, love others as we love ourselves, and our obligation to obedience to all the other laws will be fulfilled. How much more simple can it be?

"Obedience to a Simple Approach to God"

When people tried to bring their children to Jesus for a blessing, the disciples tried to keep them away. They started to rebuke the parents, as if they were doing something wrong. But Jesus becomes indignant with the disciples. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14) I can imagine the reaction of the disciples. Besides the embarrassment of being roughly corrected in front of the parents and having the children running and cheerfully gathering around Jesus, their pride must have been a little bruised. Here they had been studying hard, and working hard to be the best they could for Jesus and he says the kingdom of God belongs to these kids!
I can just see Thomas’s journal entry now:

“Well, thanks a lot, Jesus. If I’d known that, I would have stayed at home and hung around the school yard with my buddies playing all day, playing ball, or tag, waiting for the kingdom to come and then I’d just walk right in. If that’s all it takes, I can be as childish as the next guy.”

I spent every summer for twenty-five years working at camp. My day was filled with 200 children running around, screaming, playing, and just being free to enjoy everything they did. Our camp was totally outside so we could afford to let the kids be as active as they wanted to be, and they were. It was my life and I loved it. Children are amazingly simple. They say what is on their minds. They are innocent and trusting and seem to have no fear. They want to please the adults in their lives, as well as their friends and are full of unconditional love. (Of course this changes as they grow up in this world but that’s another topic for another book.) All in all children are a true blessing from God and I for one am happy to know that the kingdom will belong to “such as these.”

Jesus welcomed the children and he welcomes us when we come to him in the simplicity of a child. It’s not our degrees, or our accomplishments, or our abilities, or our knowledge of the Bible that will make us welcome to sit on his lap. It’s just who we are, loving him, and wanting to be in his presence.
I remember one day many years ago when I was sitting on the couch reading a book and my seven year old niece came up and snuggled in right beside me and just sat there with me. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t want anything, she just sat with me. It is still one of my favorite memories of the times we spent together. I imagine that is something God would appreciate as well. I am a strong advocate of spiritual practices and rituals, but sometimes I think we just need to snuggle into God and just sit silently, enjoying the moment of pure Presence. You can do that right now.

"Obedience to Simple Living"

Every generation throughout history has suffered from economic problems. Our concerns and worries have been experienced by people everywhere but it becomes very real when it affects us, our family, and our neighbors; add to that, our technology has increased so that we can see the effects all over the world, many of them more severe than ours. There are many legitimate concerns and worries about our basic necessities of life such as shelter, food, water, and clothing. So when we hear Jesus speaking in Matthew 6 telling us “Do not worry; do not say, ‘What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?”, we have reason to doubt his understanding of our lives and our situation. But God does know. “Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.” Not only does God know but Jesus tells us an alternative to our being worried and concerned, that sounds like a promise. “Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So don’t worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” It takes great faith to believe and trust in these words.

Jesus did not say we would be trouble free. He simply told us not to worry about our concerns. Worry does nothing except take up a lot of time and energy that can be used for solving the situation we may be in. It clutters our thinking so we can not see our situation clearly and think of things we can do about it. One of my many jobs besides camp work was at a Counseling Center established by the church I was a part of. In my training as a Crisis Counselor I learned that three things will avoid a situation becoming a crisis. First, have a realistic understanding of the problem. Second, have good coping mechanism skills. Third, have a good support system. Worrying will more than likely put a situation into crisis mode and make it more difficult to see clearly how to come to a solution to our situation.

Jesus said if we seek God first, our needs would be taken care of. He didn’t say all of our wants, but our needs. Being simple helps us to see clearly the difference. I remember listening to a friend talk about how worried she and her husband were because of their new baby. They were worried about money. She was sad because she would have to leave her new born baby with a sitter because she now needed to go back to work. She cried at the thought of someone else taking care of her baby and not being able to enjoy this child she had given life to. But she and her husband saw no other way. I felt sad because I knew they had other options but the worries overpowered their abilities to think about them. They had other options but perhaps could not see that they were unwilling to sacrifice some of their upper class way of life for what she really wanted, time with her baby. They each had top model big cars, one an SUV, and a big ole four wheel drive truck that sat in the driveway most of the time, except when her husband wanted to go cruising off road. They had two very big dogs with huge appetites and one was very old and needed a lot of medical service. They also had every piece of power machinery known to man, including a snow blower that blew snow off a small porch and sidewalk not more than twenty feet long, in a state that maybe gets one or two snows a winter with not much accumulation. Now I am not saying any of these things are bad and that they shouldn’t own these things. I am saying that it’s easy to look at the things we accumulate to ‘keep up with the Jones’, or to make us feel like we are making it in this life and see them as necessities. But they aren’t. In this instance smaller cars, one less truck, and less convenience ‘toys’ may have made a difference in this woman having to go back to work and being able to stay home with her baby. Seeking God and his kingdom means seeking what really matters in life, and they aren’t things. They are relationships, first with God and then with others. God created us and he will provide what we truly need for life if we keep our eyes on God’s kingdom and we keep our needs simple.

"Obedience to a Simple Focus"

We live in a very distracting world environment. Many things clamor for our attention and we can allow ourselves to get pulled in many different directions. So many things to do, so much information to pay attention to, so few hours in a day to do them, and yet we always seem to think we aren’t accomplishing what we are supposed to be accomplishing. We are busy, but busy doing what? If all this busyness is good then shouldn’t we feel more productive and shouldn’t our lives feel better and more complete? I would think so but that is not my experience. I sense that the little hamster running frantically on the little wheel is where most of the busyness is really taking us; a lot of movement but going nowhere.

We are bombarded by information twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. How can we help but get caught up and distracted? Unfortunately this begins at a very young age in this country. As a director of a Summer Camp, I can tell you that Attention Deficit Disorder and hyper-activity is a huge problem in our children today. I actually had to hire a staff person whose main responsibility was to go around camp during the day to dispense medication to children who were diagnosed with this disorder. Now more and more adults are experiencing this and it continues to get worse. Actually, I am surprised we all aren’t on medication for this disorder. Just try and watch the news on TV. There is the person talking, a strip of information streaming above and below also giving more news and little boxes showing other people talking, all on one screen, all at the same time. Who wouldn’t lose focus and attention?

It’s not just information; it’s our level of activity. Kids have schedules that leave little time for down time; school, after school programs, organized sports, and other life enhancing activities keep kids very busy. And then there are the parents who have to transport the kids in between all the things in their own day planners and also have to hold down one or two jobs to pay for all of this life enhancement. We are all trying to make a good living and a good life, but it is our living and life that suffer most from all this trying. Most of the things aren’t bad for us, but are they the best for us? The constant noise of the clamoring has all but deafened our ears to the still small voice of God telling us there is a more desirable way.

Jesus made a visit to the house of Martha and Mary. Martha was excited and got busy preparing for the visit. There was the house to be straightened, and the food to be prepared. We hear a lot about radical hospitality these days and Martha was good at it. She wanted everything to be perfect. When the guests arrived she still was working hard. But Mary stopped helping her. Something else captivated her attention; their guest.

As Jesus sat and began to speak, Mary’s attention went to his words. They were beckoning to her and she responded. Still in her apron and her hair a bit disheveled, she sat down at his feet and listened. The words were feeding her soul. Martha noticed that she had lost her help and went to find Mary. There she was, sitting at his feet, absorbed in what he was saying. Martha got a bit annoyed. Here she is working hard so that Jesus would feel welcomed, and there Mary is, sitting with him, at his feet, listening to him. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself. Please tell her to help me.” Martha was sure she was right. She had heard Jesus talk about how important it was to serve one another. He would help her get Mary back on track. But he didn’t do that. Instead he looked at Martha. He said that she was distracted, and fretting and worrying about so many things. It doesn’t say how Martha received this but I can imagine:

"Distracted…fretting…worrying…you bet I am. I am serving Jesus and his disciples, all twelve of them. That’s thirteen extra people for dinner. And who knows if they are planning on spending the night or not. Does he think that meals just appear out of thin air? This isn’t just loaves of bread and fishes you know. I’m not a miracle worker. It takes work to prepare a meal fit for the Son of God. It’s Jesus I am serving…"

I can more than imagine Martha’s reaction. I’ve experienced it many times in my life when I get busy “serving God,” doing the grunt work, while others are sitting around praying, or communing and fellowshipping with one another; Schlepping chairs, setting up the rooms, washing the dishes in the kitchen while everyone else is out listening to the lecturer. Yep, God’s watching and seeing who is doing all the work. Surely I’ll get my reward in heaven. But that’s not the lesson Jesus had for Martha. Jesus himself said that Mary had chosen the better part. Does he really mean that sitting quietly and attentively in his presence is better than running around being busy doing things for him?

The answer to that question is yes and no. Jesus didn’t tell Martha to come and join Mary at his feet and forget about fixing dinner. I’m pretty sure he and his disciples were hungry and really appreciated what Martha was fixing for them. Jesus didn’t say not to do things. He just wants us to enjoy his presence while we are doing them. Jesus calls us to serve in this world. But he wants to be with us as we serve. If we are all distracted, worried and fretting about what we are doing and also about what everybody else is doing, or not doing, we are not going to be aware of his presence and not able to learn from him what he may want to be sharing with us at that moment. It’s easy at times to get so busy doing things for God that we actually leave God behind in the dust. If we are in God’s presence, we will know we are doing what we are to be doing. There is a promise that goes along with doing God’s work in Matthew 11:28-30. It’s a promise of rest and an easy yoke and a light burden. That is what Jesus wanted Martha to be experiencing while she was busy serving. That is what Jesus wants for us as well; to experience his Presence and he experience our presence whether we are sitting at his feet or busy serving. When we learn that whatever we are doing we are in his Presence, we can find enjoyment in being with him, and we will find rest, not distraction, worry, or fretting. It’s God’s life, it’s God’s work, it’s God we are serving, it is God we need to keep as our focus.

CHAPTER 3. CULTIVATING A CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE

Jesus came to earth to save all of us from perishing. (John 3:16) We had all gone our own way long enough that it became “The” way…but it was the wrong way; a result of the wrong choice being made.
"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his paths, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws; then you will live and increase. BUT, if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. NOW choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him (Deuteronomy 31:15-20)."

We as people continually need to repent of not choosing correctly. The choice itself is simple; simply obey God. Living out that choice is difficult. It means dying to self. So we continually make the wrong choice; we “forsake God, the spring of living water, and dig our own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Why? Why do we as human beings continually choose the illusion over the reality? We want freedom above all else. But freedom without discipline is an illusion. But that is what we want; the fruit without the labor involved in growing it. Freedom without submission is an illusion as well. Bob Dylan said “You’re gonna serve somebody;” and we will serve either God or Self. A form of Christianity that serves self is an illusion and in reality is the same as godless paganism. I like Cynthia Bourgeault’s statement, “Christianity isn’t a failure. It just hasn’t been found yet.

The kingdom of heaven is within us. But its manifestation is yet to come. We are to be living it now, in Practice for its manifestation when Jesus comes again. How then shall we live? In Practice of what is to come. It’s already within us in our DNA. We just need to grow into who we were created to be. That was Jesus’ message and mission. What WILL BE, WILL BE!

“Consider Well the Path of Your Feet”

“Let your eyes look right on with fixed purpose, and let your gaze be straight before you. Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established and ordered aright” (Proverbs 4:25).

One of my observations, especially over the past few years, is that people want to lead before they have been led, teach before they have been taught, and be in control before they have been controlled. I noticed one summer that this phenomenon is starting at an early age.

I had developed a Counselor-In-Training Program for the kids at our camp from the age of 13 to 15. It was a two year program to be taught by me and other experienced staff how to be good counselors. It included information on how to craft a camp culture, create a climate for high performance, cultivating skills for their development in group dynamics and knowing how kids learned, and then information on the rules and regulations required of us by the county and state and the American Camping Association. I hired two of my best former counselors, developed a handbook, and made the kids go through an application process to be accepted into the program. . After the first week several of the CITs in the group came to me and told me they were ready to be counselors and didn’t feel they needed to go through such an extensive program that we had set up. After all, they had been campers here for many years and knew all they needed to know. I liked these kids and truly appreciated their enthusiasm. So I set up a couple of hypothetical situations they may encounter as counselors, things behind the scenes from what campers would be aware of. After failing to come up with the correct answers they decided that maybe I was right and they did need to go through the program. As I said, these were good kids and they really wanted to do a good job. They were just a product of our instant everything, self reliant society.

I have observed two major issues at fault in our society today. One, we simply act too quickly. We see life in hours and days and don’t believe in seasons. Most things in this life are growing things and growing requires seasoning. We prefer an instant product rather than a seasoned product, hence green bananas as opposed to ripe bananas and inexperienced workers in jobs as opposed to those who have learned well their trade. I am a process person more than a product person. I like things to be more than done; I want things done well. Ripeness takes time and it can’t be hurried if genuine ripeness and readiness are to occur. There needs to be time to learn, to comprehend, to take things apart and observe what makes things work well. This is what determines the good fruit in our daily lives and most important in our spiritual walk.

The second thing is the lack of a learning mind and a teachable spirit. We read something in a book, we reflect on it, understand it, and then think we know it and begin to act on it. Knowledge is a wonderful thing but it needs to be mixed with experience. An expert in something is measured by time put into performance of that thing. Richard Davidson from the Mind and Life Institute did experiments on the effects of meditation on the brain. His definition of one who was at the entry level of being classified as an expert is one that has done an appointed task for ten thousand hours. In other words, it isn’t just enough to know something; one has to put in the time of doing that something.

Being a disciple is putting in the time, walking the walk. Being a disciple is being a long time learner and that is a fulltime, lifetime position, especially when dealing with God and with spiritual matters. He is a living God whose wonders are new every morning so there is always something new.

The cultivation of discipleship in the life of a Christian has a distinct purpose and it’s necessary to set goals in order to fulfill that purpose. I believe that discipleship in the life of a Christian means having a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, wanting to be fed and nourished by the life and teachings of Jesus found in the Scriptures and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This relationship is a choice to answer the invitation he first gave to his first disciples, to “come and follow me.” Once the choice is made to become a disciple of Jesus, we then need to continue cultivating that relationship by setting goals and then beginning the work we need to do to fulfill those goals and the work we are to do in this life. The four goals that I thought would help me achieve my purpose are to discover who God is in my life, discover who I really am, discover the way I wanted to live my life, and discover my message and my mission to the world.
We are all called to be good stewards of our lives and before we can be good stewards we must first be good disciples. We should take time and learn to supervise and administer our own life well before supervising and administering anything or anyone else. It simply makes sense to me that that would be the proper progression. So that is how I live.

I have always been drawn by the quiet life, so when I began my journey on the spiritual path I read about people living that kind of life. Of course most of these people were monks and nuns and lived in monasteries and convents. As I read more about them I discovered that these monasteries and convents had what they called Rules. These were what the people lived by to not only provide order to the community they lived in but also to their individual lives. The Rule told them when to pray, when to work, when to study, and how to treat one another, as well as visitors. I did not feel called to be a nun but I was attracted by the Rule. I looked at the Rule of Benedict and felt I would not be able to follow that schedule and still live in what I considered the real world. So I decided to make up my own Rule of Life.

PAT’S RULE OF LIFE…I purpose to:
1. Have a strong and consistent devotional life.
2. Love, care, respect, and show dignity for all of God’s creation.
3. Do no harm…to leave people and places better off after my contact
with them.
4. Not take myself too seriously.

The thing I like most about having a Rule of Life is that it gives me a clear path to walk and a clear sense of purpose to what I do. It’s a standard, a plumb line to measure what to get involved in and what not to get involved in. It truly simplifies my life on every level.

If you don’t mind a little detour I would like to share some of the process I went through to develop my Rule of Life. I want to share this with you as an example, not a template. Everyone will benefit by developing their own tailor made Rule of Life.

The first thing I did was to plan a big chunk of time to do this. I tried to go to All Saints but they were full, so I made reservations at another one of my get away places, The Cozy Inn, in Thurmont, Maryland. This is an old motel up in the mountains and they have several little cottages apart from the Motel that are quaint and inexpensive; one room with a bed, desk and chair, and of course, a bathroom. They are off the beaten path and the restaurant serves the best old fashioned country Sunday breakfast buffet for miles around. So off I went. Of course, it isn’t necessary to go anywhere except a quiet place, but for me actually going someplace makes it not only feel more special, but gets me away from the “cries for attention” of home duties that can interrupt and draw my attention to things other than the task. But one does what one needs to do. The important thing is to do it. So I went to my cabin retreat, unpacked my pencil and paper and began to write my Rule of Life.

I thought about what was important to me, what values I wanted to live out, what spiritual disciplines I want to work on and how I wanted to interact with the rest of the world. I looked up words in the dictionary to really think about what these words meant. For instance: Devotional means “being devout; to give up or apply oneself or one’s time, energy, etc. to some purpose, activity, or person; loyalty; faithfulness; deep affection; intense love or admiration for.”
I truly love God and Jesus with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. Their Presence is very real in my life and I love spending time in their company. This occurs in many ways and takes many forms. When I read the Scriptures I hear their words spoken to me. When I spend time in beautiful natural settings I see their crafting all around me. When I am silent and meditating I feel their imprint on my mind and soul. Their Presence is above me, below me, and all around me. When I am mindful of that connection all is well with my soul, no matter what my circumstances or surface feeling may be. Keeping that devotional life strong and consistent is important for it anchors my soul and lifts my spirit. So that became Rule number one.

Out of a strong devotional life will pour love for all of God’s creation. Everyone and everything that is his handiwork becomes special and precious to us because it reflects him, and therefore invites our love. Again I went to the dictionary. Love means “the benevolence and the brother and sisterhood that people should have for each other; spontaneous, altruistic love; doing or inclined to do good; kind; gracious; not malignant; unselfish concern for the welfare of others; close attention; watchfulness for one another; to feel or show honor for; consider or treat with deference and courtesy; avoid intruding or molesting; to relate to and show worth to.”

This kind of love, care, respect, and dignity cannot be manifested to others without first having a strong and devotional life with God, the creator of all life. On my own I may be able to muster up love for those that I like or those who are lovable people. But God desires me to love all he created, including the unlovable, those who do bad things, and even my enemies. For me as a disciple of Jesus this is where the rubber meets the road. Love my enemies, those who want to do me harm. I am called to love them. I must see all people as precious and all in the natural world as beautiful. God’s love is the most powerful energy in the universe.
I am called to live in that energy and to love, care, respect, and show dignity for all of God’s creation. So that became Rule number two.

If I love God and the people he made and the natural world that he created, it makes sense that I would want to take care of those things and do all that I can do to make things better in a world that has become bruised and broken. There is a harshness and mean spiritedness in some of the Christian outreach and witness today that actually does people more harm than good. Jesus addressed the same attitudes in the religious leaders in his day as well. Forcing religion on people, demanding conformity of behavior is not the method used by Jesus. The Christian walk takes awhile to work out and it requires patience. The moment the sperm and egg connect and life instantly begins. All that the embryo will ever become is
transformed in that connection. But the growth, ripening, and maturation will take time, nine months and then additional decades. That growth requires a welcoming and nurturing environment, like a womb.

Sharing God’s love with people is like sowing seeds. Rather than sowing the word of God simply by throwing seeds at people, we need to touch their hearts with love so that the seed will be planted in the soil of their soul and will begin to grow. This is hardly done by rejecting them or constantly pointing out what they are doing wrong, or yelling at them, or condemning them by saying they will go to hell. What kind of womb is that? It is certainly not a good growth environment. Love is the energy that breaks up a hardened heart, the fertilizer that makes the soil ready to receive the seed. I believe this is why sinners enjoyed being around Jesus. His love opened their hearts and then the seed of his words could be planted and the transformation could take place. As my friend Brian said in a song, “He looked beyond my faults and poured out love on my need.” People came to him as they were but left changed, healed, and whole.

My job is not to go through life weeding out the good from the evil in others. That is the job of the angels at the end of the age. My job is to follow Jesus and learn of his ways. He loved and touched people, which opened their hearts and caused them to follow him. Nothing big and flashy or showy; simply loving and sowing seed. It’s the loving way of God that silently surrounds us daily in nature. Small and simple yet so profound and productive. It’s the Spirit of God that causes the transformation. My job is to help prepare the soil, by loving all I meet, and leaving them better off than when I first came in their presence. So that became Rule number three.

My last Rule came to me after being way too serious for way too long.
I went to or worked at camps for most of my life. Even my time in youth ministry involved retreats and going either to the beach or the mountains just for a good time of fun and spiritual fellowship. Silly songs, games, activities were a way of life for me. I am Peter Pan and I will never grow up, entirely.
I love the concept of “child of God.” I guess that’s because I love kids. Kids are great because they are free of all the inhibitions adults seem to adopt and hang onto. Kids know how to simply have fun and don’t take themselves or others too seriously, even when things are tough for them they seem to be able to rise above the circumstances and just laugh. Jesus loved children too. He even said in Matthew 19:14 that “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Just about every Sunday school class I have visited has a picture of Jesus running around playing with children. I love that image. Twenty five years of working and playing with kids has made me absolutely sure that kids “get it”…the true meaning of life.

But not taking myself too seriously isn’t just about having fun. It’s about being in awe of God and knowing my place in the scheme of life. It’s agreeing with the writer of Ecclesiastes 5:2 when he says, “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” It’s about agreeing with the writer of Psalm 131 when he says,

My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

I enjoy a very intimate relationship with God and I know that he loves me very much. But I also know that he is God, whose ways are much higher than my ways and thoughts are much higher than my thoughts. That keeps me in an attitude of worship and humility and causes me to love him even more. It also becomes Rule four.

I wrote my Rule of Life in a weekend that culminated with the best Sunday Brunch for miles around. But writing it and living it are two different things. The longer I live the better I get at it. Putting in those 10,000 hours makes my rule of Life more of an internal Practice and just puts me at the entry level of expert. There is still room to grow.

“Train Yourself To Be Godly”

God gave the Law and sent the Prophets to accomplish something. That means there is a completed product that will sometime come about. As with any product, there is a process and it is important that the process be allowed to run its course until its appointed time. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law; he is the BEing of the Law, not just one who does what the Law commands.

The Pharisees and the Scribes obeyed the Law and thought that they were fulfilling them. But according to Jesus just obeying the letter of the Law and thinking that was fulfilling their obligation to God was not enough. The Law and the words of the Prophets were like seeds that when planted would grow into what was to be accomplished. What was to be accomplished was more than an action; it was a way of BEing. In other words it wasn’t just acting compassionate by saying the right thing or doing the right thing. It is BEing compassionate and having compassion as the fruit of that BEing. It is not what we do but who we are in our Being that will produce the good fruit we want manifested in our lives.

What would happen if we began seeing the commandments as seeds and start planting them in our hearts, minds, and souls? In due time the fruit would grow and would begin to manifest itself in our lives. The process of transformation would complete itself and we would BE what the Law commanded rather than just trying to do what it commanded outside of ourselves. If I hear Jesus talk about the greatest commandments of loving God and my neighbors and just start trying to obey those laws, I will more than likely fail when the first mean or obnoxious person crosses my path. It’s difficult and seemingly impossible to love unlovable people if I am simply trying to obey a commandment. But if I take those two commandments as seeds and plant them in my heart and wait for the process of growth to happen, that seed will die and be transformed within me as good fruit. That good fruit will BE love that is sincerely able to love everyone; the mean, the obnoxious, and yes, even my enemies.

The Laws of the Lord are not just rigid rules to be obeyed. They are seeds of who we are to BE. They are to be planted within us, to be transformed into the fruit that will make us better people, aligned with God’s original purpose when he created us. They are a delight not a burden.
Psalm 19:7-11 says it beautifully.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure
and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold,
than much fine gold;
By keeping them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

These attributes such as a revived soul, wisdom, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, are fruit we develop as we meditate on God’s Law and become transformed by it.
We should have the same attitude when we are talking about Spiritual Practice and the disciplines that make up that Practice. They aren’t burdens we put upon ourselves or upon others. They aren’t ends in themselves. They provide the conditions to have something accomplished. They are seeds to be planted in our hearts, minds, and souls, so that they can be transformed into the good fruit of a Godly life. Who we are is crucial to what we do. In Matthew 16:15 Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am,” not what are the things that I do? Spiritual Practice and the disciplines we choose are roots that will under gird the proper growth of the good fruit we will manifest in our lives. They are the means, not the end; the process, not the product. The Pharisees were proud of their Spiritual Practice. Jesus was clear when he told his disciples how to respond to them.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach…Everything they do is done for men to see; they make their phylacteries wide and the tassels of their prayer shawls long; they love the place of honor at the banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues. (Matthew 23:2-6)

It’s easy to cheer Jesus on as he exposes these men, but it is better not to, because it is easy to get a sense of pride for doing spiritual things; “I fast twice a week; I’ve read through the Bible several times; I pay tithes on all
my salaries; I do this and I do that, etc., etc. etc.” Annie Dillard speaks to this in Teaching a Stone to Talk. In talking about spiritual disciplines, what
she refers to as “habits of life,” she writes, “You do not have to do these things; not at all. God does not, I regret to report, give a hoot. You do not have to do these things, unless you want to know God. You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.”

God isn’t impressed with our Spiritual Practice or the disciplines we do. He is impressed with who we are, with our love and our desire to be aligned to his purpose for us. The disciplines are for us, to keep us focused on God. They become our Practice and our aids to life, not our aim in life. Our aim is towards God. He alone is to be our focus. Our Practice of the disciplines helps us remember that; they aid in keeping our relationship vital and flowing in our lives. They are the seeds and roots that become obvious only as the fruit becomes obvious. Jesus taught by example. His life was in constant communion with God all the time. Being fully human and easily distracted, I need help and all the aids I can find to do that. I think we all do. So it is important to find what aids help you the most and then plant them, allow them to develop into a Practice and do them. We all need to find the aids that help us do that. The Spiritual disciplines I do as my Spiritual Practice help me keep track of how God works in my life. They may or may not be what you need. Jesus didn’t keep a journal (can you imagine if he had!). Just remember, the Practice is for you, not to impress God or others.

Our Christian tradition has passed down many spiritual disciplines that people of God have found helpful in their walk with God. But before we look at these seeds that will grow to maturity within us as good fruit, we need to consider the roots of what we are going to accomplish.

The taproot of the Godly life is Jesus’ teaching about the greatest commandments in Matthew 22:36-40.
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied:” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

If all the people who say they believe in God and call themselves Christians would live out these two simple commandments, imagine what a world this would be!
Another taproot of the Godly life is John 15:1-17.

I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener…Remain in me, and I will remain in you…I am the vine and you are the branches…If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples…Love each other as I have loved you…This is my command: Love each other.


Jesus talks about our relationship to God and to him, and how good fruit is developed in our lives. The imperative in both roots is that we are to love God and one another. At the core of all that we are and all that we do in our lives is LOVE. Once we are rooted in that simple truth our lives will be transformed and then our lives will bear good fruit to present to the world.

So what is involved in Spiritual Practice and in choosing Spiritual disciplines to support that Practice? That depends on what our goals are. For me the goal is to be a disciple of Jesus. That means finding ways to love him and be in his Presence in the here and now. So I look for practical things I can do to bring this goal about. If I want to love Jesus I spend time in his Presence. I read, meditate on, and study the scriptures. I pray and commune with him. I walk and talk with him and I get to know more about him; I listen to his voice; I reflect and respond to what he says to me; I obey him and submit to him. In this day and age the words obey and submit are scary words. They are words that have been abused and used for purposes other than what God meant them to be used for. But obedience and submission to Jesus is not scary or burdensome. Obedience and submission to Jesus is the only way to true freedom to be who we are truly meant to be. It means being in alignment, doing the right thing at the right time for our absolute health and right being. It gives us rest and peace.

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).

I like the concept of Spiritual Practice. It says to me that the discipline is ongoing, taking me farther along in the process and continually growing. It helps me in those moments when pride could enter into what I am doing and keeps me aware that there is always going to be some work to do on the path to perfection.

There is much written on the subject of Spiritual Practice and incorporating spiritual disciplines into your life. Two thousand plus years of the history of Christianity demonstrates that men and women who love God have developed ways of keeping their love of God and of Jesus alive in them.
A lot of that history comes out of the monasteries and the people who committed their entire life to communing with God. Rules of life and spiritual exercises have been passed down for generations to assist people in their spiritual formation. We are blessed to have a fertile field of knowledge in this area. But simply knowing about these ways is not the goal.

Finding the ways to being in loving communion with God and with Jesus and cultivating a godly life should be at the heart of every Christian. But it is important that the ways one chooses become real and sustainable to each individual. The tradition is rich but it must also be personal or it will just be rote and routine activity instead of life changing and life enhancing. Spiritual formation is not a one size fits all endeavor and neither is Spiritual Practice. So what are the spiritual disciplines involved in your Spiritual Practice?

“Fan Into Flame the Gift of God Within You”

It has been a very long winter. Those who are gardeners are frequenting stores, lingering around the new seed packages that are being put out by merchants and store keepers eager to get this year’s growing season started. My farmer’s wife-writing mentor friend tells me it’s still a bit early, but in a few weeks it will be time. Her eyes light up as she is pondering the day that the seeds will be taken out of their package and begin their journey to become what they were meant to be.

We have been talking about the inward process of preparing the soil of our souls and planting the seeds of spiritual disciplines that will be the roots of all that we are meant to be as people who love God and follow Jesus in this life. We have done the preliminary work and now it’s time to look at the outer testimony of what that all means in our interaction with the people in our lives and the world we live in. God has given each of us a life of meaning and intention. Our responsibility is to explore our identity, define our message, and pursue our mission, in order to live our life to the best of our ability.

I know what many of you are expecting to follow now; Meyers/Briggs, Spiritual Gifts inventories, etc. But you are wrong. I think all of those inventories are interesting and useful in finding out where one is in the scheme of the Christian walk. But that is not how God worked with me in letting me know what my purpose in his plan was. So I will share that with you in the hope that by now you know that God speaks and works with us in many wonderful and different ways.

Back in the 1980’s I went to a weekend workshop. One of the exercises was to go off by ourselves and look ahead ten years to what we had become and then journal about it. This is what I wrote.

“The morning came in quietly. The light of day slowly increased as the darkness of night vanished. Birds began their morning songs. Squirrels began their scampering for food. The world was awakening, at least this little corner of it. I sit in the wooden rocking chair on the porch of my cabin home. I’m looking out onto the land I am presently responsible for; Pilgrimage of the Heart Retreat Center…Land of Untasted Honey. It’s the beginning of autumn. The leaves are beginning to turn to their majestic colors of gold and scarlet red. The air is crisp, cool, and filled with the scent of smoke from the kitchen wood fire, as breakfast is being prepared. I am sitting, drinking my morning cup of ginger root tea, dressed in my flannel shirt, jeans, and boots, just slowly welcoming the coming day. It has become a ritual for me, my Morning Watch. I sit soaking in the new fresh energy of the universe, reading my Bible, writing in my journal, just glad to be alive at this particular time and in this particular place. Being here is like a dream come true. It’s the culmination of my mind’s vision and my heart’s desire since the day I started my Spiritual journey with God.

It all started with a dream, one of those vision type dreams that visit again and again.

In the dream I am living in a cold, dark cellar with some nameless, faceless friends. This is my existence, the only place I know. It is dark and cold. The walls are stone and the only furniture in the room is a wooden table with chairs, where we all sit huddled around. I get up from the table and walk over to the wall at the end of the room. I look to the left and see a hallway, one that apparently has, up to this moment, remained undiscovered. I look back to the table and then turn and slowly venture down the hall. It is narrow and dark yet so is my present boredom of life. I continue, feeling my way along the cold stone wall with my hand. Suddenly I come to a door at the end of the hall. With wary mind and hands I open the door and step through. I climb the stairway and find another level of the house where I live. At the top of the stairs I find a beautifully decorated, fully furnished, but clearly unused room. I slowly walk around the room looking at the unused books on the bookshelves, the comfortable chairs and sofa that are sitting there empty. I see another set of stairs in front of me and continue to venture forward. At the top of those stairs I find another fully furnished yet unused room. This one is decorated totally different, but is lovely. It is filled with antiques and comfortable, inviting furniture. Another stairway brings me to another room filled with bedroom furniture. It too is empty and clearly unused. The final set of stairs takes me to the top of the roof where I go out into the fresh air and brilliant blue, sun filled sky. I step out onto a porch with wooden rocking chairs facing out over the woods and a clear crystal blue lake. It is breathtakingly beautiful. I sit in one of the rockers and wonder why…why has my existence thus far been limited to a dark, cold, stale basement when all of these rooms are unused and seemingly available? I feel the crisp air around me and the touch of the sun’s warmth on my skin and I wake up."

The dream remains very clear in my waking hours and visits my dreamtimes frequently for many years. Gradually the meaning unfolds itself to me and its revelation becomes the fabric of which I construct my life. For a long time I lived my life in survival mode. I stayed in that one room basement afraid to venture out any further. But somehow I knew that there was much more to life. Somehow I overcame the fear that held me back and simply ventured out. I found sights that I had never seen and read about ideas I had never thought of and I grew more and more excited at the vast experience of living life to the fullest.

Then a vision was implanted in me and grew like a seed of a child in a mother’s womb. I wanted a place in the country, a Retreat Center where people could come and in the quiet, peaceful surrounding of nature come to a point of rest within themselves and be encouraged to find their Center in God and hear his voice and then find their voice. A place where the ME within each human being could come forth without fear and find its full expression; where people could come into contact with their Creator, not via doctrine or rules or regulations, but merely through his Presence. Spending time working in the garden, creating on the Potter’s Wheel, reading, walking through meadows and woods, and canoeing on a lake; just BEING and enjoying all that life has to give.”

After we were done writing we gathered back together. We broke for lunch and then we were to return and BE what we had written about. I spent the next few hours as the overseer of that Retreat Center and the others became what they had projected they would be in ten years. It was awesome. I felt so happy and so empowered. It fit me perfectly and I knew it, I felt it in my soul. I returned home from that workshop knowing this dream would someday come true.

This vision consumed me. It directed almost every aspect of my life. I chose jobs and education opportunities that would train and equip me for this vision. It was and still is my passion. I continue to hold onto that vision in good times and in bad times. I know that it will develop and be birthed into being, even though all of reality seems to witness against it. Thirty years have passed by since that workshop. When I get discouraged I read about Abraham and Sarah, who waited long into their years to have God fulfill his promise of an heir for them. Or I read about Moses who wandered forty years in the desert with people waiting to go into their new home land. In God’s time his promise will come about.
I know that one day the dark will be overcome by the light in a quiet, gentle way and the vision will be fulfilled. That is why I started, and to this day keep my Morning Watch ritual. It keeps me conscious of the fact that light always dispels darkness and visions do turn into reality when and where they are meant to, and God truly does fulfill the desires of the heart.

“Like A Spring Whose Waters Never Fail”

We are coming to the end of our journey together. Soon we will part company and be on our own unique paths, moving forward to the same destination. That is the joy of a life lived with God. We meet each other along the way, part company for awhile, and then end up in the same place, each of us grown into who and what we were meant to be on our own, yet somehow always connected. We all have that same spring of living water flowing deep within us, the spring whose waters never fail.

It all began with our souls thirsting for God. We have learned how to cultivate a relationship with God by making our soul soft and ready to receive the seed that God wants to plant within each of us. Then we learned how to keep the soil of our souls fertile ground for that seed to sprout, grow, and bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. And now we find ourselves back where we began, hopefully with even a greater thirst for God.

I love the Spiritual disciplines I have been talking about in this book. I want to continue to develop each one of them, not just as a technique for being more disciplined so that my life will be more orderly, but more important as a way to enrich my life and my relationship with God.

I want to be still and silent in my soul, in my mind, and in my actions. I want to hear, speak, and live out of the silence, listening deeply before responding and acting. I want to know God’s heart and that only happens when I am still and silent as I commune with him. I want to live in obedience to God’s way, not because I have been commanded to, but because I know deep within that he only wants what is best for me, because he loves me with a deep and abiding love. I want to do the work it takes to heal the damage done to my soul so that I am not harboring hate, unforgivness, and bitterness. These are the attitudes that produce a hardness of heart and cause the fruit of my life to be tainted and unproductive.

I want to live my life with intention and purpose, knowing who I truly am in God, and knowing with certainty what his desire for my message and mission is. Life is sacred and I don’t want to waste time and energy on things that won’t last in the heart of eternity.

All of the things we have learned to do are not solely for the purpose of getting something done or produced. They are a response, mine and yours, to the love poured out on us by a great and gracious God. That is why we return to where we began, with a soul that continually thirsts for him. But the good news is that God himself is that spring of living water whose waters never fail, and our thirst will be continually satisfied.

So where do we go from here? God seems to keep his children on the move. He said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). He told Moses to tell the Israelites “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God…and I will bring you to the land I swore to give Abraham..(Exodus 6:7,8)” When a teacher of the law came to follow Jesus, he replied “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). My suspicion is we aren’t going to be just sitting around full, fat, and forty, satisfied with what we’ve learned and resting on our laurels. The operative word in contemplative life is LIFE.

Life is like a garden. It is a growing process of self exploration, dreaming dreams, and keeping the garden of our souls well watered. There are many lessons to be learned, experiences to be experienced, and a whole lot of life to be lived. My hope is that you have enjoyed this journey we have taken in looking at the roots and fruits of a contemplative life. Now the fun begins as we start to break up the fallow grounds, plant the seed, and then watch a life grow.

EPILOGUE
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10

Jesus said he came to earth so that we could have a full life. The Amplified version of the Bible says, “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance, to the full, till it overflows.” The Contemplative life is the abundant life, the full blooming fruit produced as we cultivate our souls to love God. The spiritual disciplines are the nutrients and fertilizer we add to the soil of our souls, that feed, nourish, and create rich, fertile, and good soil, so the seeds God plants can take root, and produce a strong healthy life, bearing good fruit of the Spirit in abundance. The ingredients in the soil are hidden, invisible to the human eye. It’s the life lived that is seen. Our works of discipline are to be hidden. What they produce as fruit is what people will see and will be drawn to.

The growth process is invisible to the human eye, similar to the incubation period for a baby in the womb, or a vision in the mind and soul of a writer or artist.
God tells us to pray in secret, fast in secret, do good deeds in secret, serve in secret, and give alms in secret. It is deep in the ground that the seed grows as it is meant to, protected from human interference from the farmer who may want to control the growth of the plant for production reasons. It is in secret that the motive to the deeds we do will be kept pure and free of the pride that destroys good and well meaning folks, and then all praise will go to God for what has transformed in us. The paradox is that what is hidden is in full view, but it’s not us but God’s glory that shines forth through us, just as the sun shines through a plain glass window.

We have Jesus as our example. His disciples left everything and followed him before they saw him do any of the signs and miracles he performed. There was something in him, as he simply lived, that drew them. We learn how he lived his life as we read the Gospels. We have a great cloud of witnesses as our example. In the Scriptures and in life around us we see ordinary women and men living extraordinary lives as they followed God. We learn from them as we read their stories.
It is our lives that express what is deep and hidden within us. It is God’s love and life that gives us the desire to be transformed back into his image. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that transforms us. It is the spiritual disciplines and practice of working with them that puts us in a healthy place where that transformation can occur. They keep the soil of our souls fed with proper nutrients, well fertilized, and supplied with the natural elements of light, water, and air so that the seeds God plants in us will do their work and develop into healthy, wholesome lives bearing fruit in abundance.

I want to close with what I adopted as my life verse thirty-eight years ago, when in 1973 I made a commitment to live an intentional and a Contemplative life. It is also my prayer for you as you continue on your spiritual journey. “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody”
(I Thessalonians 4:11). Amen, and may God bless you in abundance.

Copyright © 2011 by Pat DeWitt-Thomas