Being the Beloved - A Monthly Blog from CFDM Northwest
By Wanda Dorsing, CFDM Faculty
All of us are busy. We are productive, responsible, connected people, making good things happen in our families and the world. Unfortunately it is not unusual for our busyness to interfere with our life with God, squeezing out soul care. In response, voices within our Christian community call us to slow down and live with more margin.
Sometimes the invitation to slow down is the convicting voice of the Spirit helping us to see that we are slaves to our “programs for happiness” as Thomas Keating would say. In this case, change is iin order. But sometimes we just feel guilty because there is nothing we can actually cut out to make our life less busy. We can’t give away a child, quit a job, stop caring for aging parents, or leave other commitments in order to lead a less busy life. Rather than feeling guilty and longing for the day when things “settle down a bit,” perhaps there are seasons of life when the invitation is to connect with God in the midst of a full life.
I’ve been living with the word “midst.” God with me and me with God in the midst of life in all its busyness: God with me in the midst of one-thing-after-another days, unexpected twists, and too-short nights. God delighting in the pulse and pace of my life, not wanting me to be looking for a way out, but to learn how to connect with him in the midst of it all.
Some practices that have sustained my awareness of God’s presence in the midst of busy life have included a prayer candle on my island to keep me mindful of the loving presence of Jesus and to help me hold people in prayer, flowers to remind me that I’m God’s beloved, and breath prayers flowing through me in conversations with teenagers, at football games, in meetings and check-out lines.
More recently some other ways of connecting with God in the midst have emerged in my life. Here are two:
Watching cats - Our outdoor farm cats do a lot of living right outside the tall window in our kitchen where I can see their eating, sleeping, pouncing, grooming, and snuggling. In recent months I’ve made it a practice to watch them early in the morning. Some mornings it's dramatic kitten wrestling matches, but my favorite is watching them sleep, snuggled together in one fuzzy, purring, orange pile. I sense the delight of the Creator in his creation as it does the things it is made to do and this energizes my own embrace of what’s in front of me.
Putting on love - Earlier this year we went on a vacation for the first time in a very long time. I knew my normal soul care practices that involve time and silence wouldn’t make sense in the midst of a vacation schedule. Yet I longed to remain present to the loving presence of God holding me and flowing through me. While waiting in line to purchase some last minute things for the trip, I was drawn to a necklace with a white pendant. As I held the necklace considering if I was going to do this impulse buy, I turned it over and saw the word “love” inscribed on the back. This impulse buy hung around my neck the whole vacation and on many busy days since when I want a simple silent reminder that I am in the loving presence of God and that I am a conduit for that love as I move through my day.
So . . . how busy is your current season of life? Perhaps the invitation is indeed to back away from some of your engagements and slow down to make space for God. Or perhaps the invitation is to engage with God in the midst, noticing his presence and his delight in the things that fill your life. What in your life right now might be a way for you to connect with God in the midst of your life?
What books, media, activities are nurturing your heart, soul, mind, strength in this season as we are loving God and our neighbor as ourselves? Post in the comments below or hop on over to our Facebook page and share with one another.