invitations

     Sometimes I get stuck. I want to change a habit or start again to do that one thing I love to do, but I’m pulled in too many directions. There are too many voices competing for my attention (including my own you-should and you-never and you-couldn’t voices). I get overwhelmed, so I don’t move.

     That changes when I allow myself to be quiet, because sometimes in the quiet I hear very gentle invitations. They aren’t extraordinary or earth-shattering. Usually they are plain and simple invitations to take one small step, like a child learning to walk. When I say yes, the next step is a lot easier. Before I know it, I’m unstuck. It almost always happens one gentle invitation at a time.

“The voice of God is very gentle; we cannot hear it if we let other voices compete.” Evelyn Underhill 

“[O]verwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get.” Mark 4:19

wide, too

sometimes

i am free

(because

Your arms

are opened

wide

to me)

to open

my arms

wide, too--

happy pauper

arms wide open

hands empty

bringing

nothing

(except

yes)

 

“For a child has been born . . . Prince of Wholeness . . .

and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.”

Isaiah 9:6-7

 

 

the parade

     I woke up last night and couldn’t get back to sleep because so many thoughts were knocking at my door. Normally I let them in and entertain them, but last night I decided to do something different. I let them in, but, instead of entertaining them, I just watched them parade across my mind and out the back door.

There were thoughts of every size and description. After a while, I noticed that they had one surprising thing in common. Each thought was saying some version of “you should be ashamed” (for not trying hard enough or being good enough or whatever). I kept watching the parade, and then something strange and wonderful happened: I began to realize that I didn’t have to believe them.

“Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” Romans 12:2

“To be human is to be infected with this phenomenon we call shame.” Dr. Curt Thompson

 

among friends

     Yesterday, in a group of friends, somebody said, “I’m ashamed to give you an update on my life, but I’m going to do it anyway.” She did. Nobody squirmed or spoke. We just sat there. She smiled a relieved smile. She said, “I guess it wasn’t so shameful after all.”

     It wasn’t. Nothing she had said was shameful, but she didn’t know that until she said it out loud among friends.

“You see this sort of thing at the center of every great story. Dorothy takes her journey with the Scarecrow, the Tinman, the Lion, and of course, Toto. . . . When Captain John Miller is sent deep behind enemy lines to save Private Ryan, he goes in with a squad of men. . . . This is written so deeply on our hearts: You must not go alone.” John Eldredge

“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12

the train station

     When a train is coming into the station, the whole atmosphere changes. The rumble gets loud. The platform shakes. The air gets tense. People pick up their suitcases and briefcases and start moving toward the train. Everybody is focused on boarding the train, but you don’t have to. You can just stand on the platform and let the train leave without you. Pretty soon the station quiets down again.

     My inner world is a lot like that train station. When something happens that triggers me (to worry or to get angry or to butt into somebody else’s business), my whole inner atmosphere changes. Things start to rumble and shake. The air gets tense. Everything in me is focused on boarding the (worry or angry or butting-in) train as usual. But sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I just stand on the platform and let the train leave without me. Pretty soon I quiet down again. 

“Our choices really do count in the sight of God.” Patrick Henry Reardon

“Today, I give you the choice between life and death. . . .  Choose life. . . .” Deuteronomy 30:19