Wednesday Wonder – February 28, 2024

We have now celebrated two Sundays of Lent. We are moving ever deeper into the reflective time Lent offers. Often Lent comes during a dark time of the year. It comes at the end of the winter, which can be cold, blustery and dark. We seem, this Lent, to be receiving more sunlight than usual. The days are warmer, but the wind can still be quite cold. Even with the blinds closed in my office I have to keep shifting the laptop so I can see the screen. Not going to complain though, would rather have the sun than what we have been having.

How are your Lenten practices going? Mine are as I hoped. I have found a way to remember to take my intentional prayer time on the weekends when there is no usual routine. In fact, I find that the weekend allows for even more time to get through an ever growing list of prayer needs. I wanted to share what I have started doing for my weekend prayer time.

I have a book about ways to pray. One of the prayers they refer to as a “Here I Am” prayer. You sit and say to yourself, “Here I am doing nothing, and I am going to do nothing for five minutes.” When you get good at it, you might want to extend that amount of time. Then you take the time to simply notice your own body, your surroundings, and ultimately, God’s presence. You don’t have to have a list of people or things you are praying for, you need only to be open and aware that God is there. This is also a great way to start a meditation practice if you ever wanted to try that. In the noticing of your body, surroundings, God, you begin to relax and just ‘be’. We are, after all, called human beings, not human doings. This is a way to allow yourself that time to be. You may start to think, or speak, what is on your heart and mind, but by noticing God is there, you can be assured that God knows all those things.

Sometimes when I sit down I will say, “Here I am, God, let’s chat.” Then I still take the time to be still. God speaks in the stillness and as I mentioned last week, prayer is a dialogue. Sometimes we have to let God have the floor. If we have learned nothing from the story of Elijah, let us remember that God was not in the whirlwind and other great events, but in the stillness when it came. When we stop our constant doing, we allow God to speak from the stillness.

Now, I know that praying/meditating is not easy. I know that cultivating stillness is not easy. I know that giving yourself permission to sit and ‘do nothing’ for even a few minutes is not easy. I have been working at this for years. Frankly, I’m still not that good at it. I am much more comfortable sending many, many words God’s way and then, maybe, seeing the sign God sends back in answer. I was brought up to keep busy. Idle hands and all that. So, stopping is a challenge.

I have found ways over the years to sort of ease into such things. My family laughs when I spend hours wandering around a bookstore deciding how to spend my gift cards. But, like libraries, bookstores tend to be quiet places. Even as I wander I am more still and my mind more quieted than usual. If you have a place like that, start there. Any time we quiet our hearts and minds, we give God a chance to speak, and ourselves a chance to hear.

And what have I been hearing lately? I hear reminders to get back to journaling my gratitude because there is so much to be grateful for each and every day, whether I want to admit it or not. You, dear reader, are one of things I am grateful for today. Thank you to everyone who has let me know that my train of consciousness can sometimes inspire, inform or make you think. Maybe taking the few moments to read what I offer is the best you can do to be still. Then we can be sure God is in our midst, bringing us together and hearing what our hearts are saying.

Peace,
Rev. Mary-Jane