Spiritual Resilience

Have you ever wondered if prayers and/or other spiritual practices such as meditation or Centering Prayer, make any difference?  Those thoughts have sometimes snuck up on me when I am not looking.  They encourage me to be discouraged about those spiritual practices which I engage in.

I practice Centering Prayer regularly.  This can be best described as a form of meditation in which I empty myself and try to let go of intervening thoughts my ‘monkey brain’ produces to make room for an awareness of God in my existence.  I also pray daily to give thanks to God and to ask God for help for myself and others.  Help and thanks are two basic types of prayer as I wrote the last time.   However, sometimes I wonder if these spiritual practices make one iota of difference to anyone or anything or even to me.  Recently I attended the funeral of someone I have been praying to receive healing.  So, was there any point to praying those prayers.  That is just one example of many that can lead to doubts.

In the case of Centering Prayer, that doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere.  I still have thoughts flooding into my head at times – it doesn’t seem that I am making any “progress” at getting better at that practice.  And that is exactly what is wrong with this response.  It is not a question of making progress or getting anywhere as we often assess life.  We live our lives trying to make progress or get better at whatever, or working to accomplish goals.  If we don’t reach those goals or get to our appointed destination, we view it as a failure.  This is the way that our ego views our lives and the world.  However, that is not the point of a spiritual life.  God says somewhere, “my ways are not your ways.” (it actually Isaiah 55: 8 – thanks Google)   God does not expect or want us to be and become spiritual successes in that sense.   

However, there is a point – or probably many points to spiritual practice.  However, they are not the ones that the world usually uses to assess activities or undertakings.  One benefit (if we are judging the activity by benefits) is described by Brian McLaren.  He describes the radical trust and resilience that spiritual practices can offer in difficult times or apparent lack of ‘progress’:

We have to prepare ourselves to live good lives of defiant joy even in the midst of chaos and suffering. This can be done. It has been done by billions of our ancestors and neighbors. Their legacy teaches us to see each intensifying episode of turbulence as a labor pain from which a new creative opportunity can be born. Life will be tough; the only question is whether we will become tougher, wiser, and more resilient.… The communities that learn and teach … spiritual resilience will become vital resources for everyone. (We can hope that some Christian communities will take part in this work.) These individual and communal practices will help us dump bitterness, fear, disappointment, and toxicity and refuel with mercy, vision, anticipation, and equanimity. They will help us ignore what deserves to be ignored and monitor what needs to be monitored. They will help us reframe our narratives, so we can mourn, grieve, and lament … even as we imagine, celebrate, and labor for the birth of a better future.… To use familiar biblical language, we will need to walk by faith through the valley of the shadow of death [Psalm 23:4], always holding anticipative space for something beautiful to be born, especially during the most painful contractions.

Beyond that, or in addition to that, we can do what we can to open ourselves to the divine presence in our lives that is always present.  In doing so we can have faith that the results are in God’s hands and leave it there.  God’s ways may not be our ways but we can be assured that they are the way, the truth and the light. 

May we be blessed to be open to the divine presence in our lives on our journey.