formation friday: frantic

* every friday i’ve been sharing a short spiritual direction reflection.  thanks for sharing some of your experiences with it! the other ones so far this month are:  a shifter’s prayer, pilgrimage, and security.  

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i hate the feeling of being frantic.  running from one thing to another with no space in between.  lists that are far too long with things that could never possibly get accomplished in one day let alone a week.  i tend to live a fairly frantic life.  between all these kids & the wildness of the refuge & all of the other things i love to do, i don’t have a lot of extra space.  our motto is work hard, play hard, but sometimes it all just feels a little too crazy for my liking.  at the same time, i have come to accept that there’s no perfect way to achieve balance.  i’m not one calendar-tweak away from having it all feel calm and serene.

i need to continue to find ways to find peace & serenity despite the craziness.

to notice the rock underneath my feet.

to feel God’s presence in the midst of real life.

some of you may not have frantic schedules, but you heart may feel busy, cluttered, tired.

no matter where we are with God right now, most of us can at least relate to the priest from the movie rudy, who says one of my all-time favorite lines:   “i only know two things:  #1.  there is a God. and #2.  i’m not him.”

this week i practiced a simple spiritual direction exercise that some spiritual directors use to help ground people to God’s presence and stillness in the midst of whatever is going on.  i use it now and then and in the midst of a particularly extra-frantic week, it was exactly what i needed.  it’s amazing what can happen when we take a little time to breathe and turn our hearts and minds toward God instead of the laundry lists in front of us.

it’s a meditation on psalm 46:10, “be still and know that i am God.”

i am going to break it down into several movements.  you can read it aloud or silently, whatever feels best.  when i was in my car this week i looked like a weirdo talking to myself & breathing deeply at the stoplight but it really helped.

go slowly.  read each line several times.  breathe deeply.  notice your feet on floor (or on the brake pedal, ha ha).

breathe in God’s peace.  breathe out anxiety-fear-stress-frantic-ness.

remember there is a God.  remember you’re not him.

psalm 46:10 reflection

be still and know that i am God.  // 

be still and know that i am. // 

be still and know. // 

be still. // 

be.  // 

just be.

may we find stillness in the midst of whatever we’re dealing with.

may God help calm our busy hearts.

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have a great weekend. tonight i’m off on a fun i-can’t-believe-we’re-really-going adventure with jose to greece & turkey (one of my dreams forever) so will be gone for a week. i’ll be online for our ex-good-christian-women’s class that starts monday (oh it’s going to be a good one!) but it’ll be quiet here.  see you on monday the 8th!