Looking Within - A Contemplative Podcast

We work so hard to independently acquire security, affection, and control. When our efforts are thwarted, we experience frustration and unconscious behaviors and reactions. But there’s a visceral sense of freedom when we can let go and let God be the source of all that we need. 

During these days of isolation, fear, uncertainty, and new normals, let your breath be a place where you find God. Imagine Jesus appearing before you as he did to the disciples on the evening of his resurrection. Share in their joy of seeing him and feeling his immediate Presence. Hear his words of peace and encouragement. And breathe in the breath -- as they did -- the life-giving breath of the Divine. 

It’s the day after Easter, but fear, anxiety, uncertainty, feeling totally off balance due to the new normals of different routines and daily patterns . . . these move front and center into my mind and heart. I can forget that the Divine is holding all of us, and is always on the ready to be relied upon through thick and thin. Perhaps, at times, you forget this same thing.

Today is the final episode of our Lent Experience. It’s been wonderful to travel through these weeks with you. I hope you’ve enjoyed pondering some of the sections of Henry Nouwen’s book Life of the Beloved. I pray that you’ve come away with a renewed sense of God’s love for you personally, and with new eyes to spot the belovedness in others and all of creation.

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday, the night when Jesus and his disciples gathered in the Upper Room to eat a final meal together. Jesus’ first sharing of the bread and wine (the Lord’s Supper) took place at this meal. The love of Jesus for his disciples -- and for all of us -- was on full display.

We begin the final week of our Lent Experience with an eye on what these weeks might mean for our lives: How will I carry out my personal mission to live as God’s beloved? How will being chosen, blessed, broken, and given show up in my words and actions, in my thoughts and motives? How will I love others, myself, creation, and God in my own unique way?

This week we’ve been pondering how each of us is given for the sake of others. This can happen through both our life, and through our death. We are called to live for others, but also to die for others. How is this possible?

There are many wonderful ways that we can give to others through our talents and skills or through our finances. But the greatest gift of all is our life. “Who can we be for each other?” is the core question. Being given is not so much what we can do, but who we are for others.

In a society that speaks more about having than giving, we find our deepest fulfillment by being given as a gift for others. Jesus’ entire life modeled this, and now more than ever, we are called to give our very lives to one another. Our lives truly do find final significance in being lived for others.

Each Friday’s bonus episode will include a Lovingkindness meditation. The meditation begins with words of self-love and self-compassion, spreading from there to express love for all others and creation. Acknowledging and welcoming our experiences of brokenness cracks open our hearts, and compels us to share loving kindness with others, and with all of creation.