“Be still, and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46

“The grace of Christian wholeness that flowers in silence, dispels the illusion of separation (from God). Martin Laird

Last week my friend Joe, who describes himself as a modern and everyday mystic, gave a presentation on the importance of listening to God.  The first step in doing so is to create space.  A space for us to be with God. A space for God to be with us.  A space for us to hear—to REALLY listen–to what God is saying to us.  The truth is, the space we hold for God is too small, or way too cluttered with other “things”, thus leaving no room.  There are three primary obstacles to creating that space for quiet contemplation.

The first is Noise. Our senses are constantly assaulted by noise.  There is the external noise that comes from living in a 24/7 information age.  But there is also the internal noise that is a matter of our own doing.  We create our own cognitive clutter.  It comes from the voice inside of our head that is constantly carrying on a conversation with us, trying to make sense of the world in which we live, and the life we live in that world.  Unfortunately, that voice too often is speaking nonsense and untruths that serve to confuse and frustrate us.  In order to create space for God, we need to literally turn off the external noise, and then shut off the internal noise by moving out of our head to our heart.  That leads us to the second obstacle; The Mind.

It is safe to say that each of us spends way too much time in our minds.  We are constantly thinking, thinking, thinking.  We ingest information and education to feed our minds, but unfortunately our hearts and souls are left vacant, vapid, vacuous.  Perhaps the most serious problem created by our minds is the illusion of separation from God. It is a common tenant that comes to us naturally but is also reinforced religiously and theologically.  The Bible begins with the story of being expelled from the Presence of God.  Church doctrines and dogmas are based on that premise.  And diagrams are designed by well-meaning, albeit all-too-zealous Christians, illustrating the chasm that exists between humans and God. 

What if the paradigm was shifted from separation from God to union with God?  How would that affect our thinking?  And searching? Martin Laird writes, “When the mind is brought to stillness . . . a deeper truth presents itself: we are and have always been one with God and we are all one in God.”   This may not be a traditional teachingin Christian circles, but it is common  not only in other faith practices, but in the teaching of Christ as well.  Consider what Jesus says in John 15 about the vine and the branches, or in John 17 about us being one with God just as He is.  Shifting our way of thinking and believing is essential, for instead of seeing God as being distant and far away from us, we begin to recognize that God is as close, even closer perhaps, than we are to ourselves.  And therefore, we are able to stop seeking and searching, and settle into the Presence of God that is with us.

The third obstacle is what I like to call “religiosity”.  Religiosity, as I define it, is going through the outward motions of worship, believing, and being good, without having a spiritual connection with God.  Religiosity, among other things, focuses on action, doing, and achieving.  What matters is what product is being produced.  The nature of contemplation is that it calls us not to do, but to be. In quiet contemplation there is nothing to be measured or quantified.  One is simply sitting silently soaking in the Presence of God. 

I would like to invite you now to practice removing the obstacles and engage in a brief meditation.  Find a quiet place.  Sit comfortably, preferably with your feet on the floor and your hands open.  Close your eyes, breathe deeply and exhale.  And then breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.  And then speak the verse above from Psalm 46, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Do it a number of times.  And then repeat it as follows:

“Be still and know that I Am.”

“Be still and know.”

“Be still.”

“Be.”