Morning Meditation

 

In a book I was recently reading, the author asked a great question: ‘Growing up, were you told and taught that life is something to be endured, a constant struggle, and a slog to just get through??  OR were you taught that life is an adventure?’  I admit that the lessons I learned put me firmly in the first camp.  What I learned growing up was, to quote Norm from the television show, Cheers, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world…and I am wearing Milk Bone pants.”  The stories I heard as a child and teenager often focused on what was broken and who was to blame.  There was a powerlessness to it all, as if the world was out to get us.  And, of course, if something good did happen…well, enjoy it now because it won’t last.

 

Pause for a moment, what are some of the stories you can remember hearing growing up from parents, grandparents, aunts, teachers, pastors, and those around you?  Did the stories help you see the world as generative, generous, and grace-filled – like a seed scattering God?  Was there an abundance and awe to life – God who would plant seeds anywhere?  Or was the menu served in your home full of resentment, anger, and anxiety?  These stories shape us.  They impact and influence us.  Sometimes, because we love the people who first loved us, we can be defensive about the way we were taught to see the world. 

 

You have a story you tell yourself every day.  For example, you get stuck in traffic do you think: “Great, just my luck.  This always happens!”  Can that one moment ruin your whole day?  Or do you see being stuck in traffic as a chance to listen to your favorite music longer than you would on a normal commute?  As a recovering “life is a struggle and slog” person, I hear the chatter in my mind that tells me, “Humph, listen to music longer, what a silly suggestion!  I don’t want to be late (read here: seen as irresponsible or disrespectful)”  For us schooled in life as a struggle, especially when we have reached Jedi-level, our minds can twist and turn the most amazing moment into something that is lacking.  More and more I am realizing and recognizing that my running late because of traffic really isn’t going to be the worst thing ever.  Afterall, I am not late to perform major surgery.  Afterall, I have this amazing device called a “cell phone” and can usually call the person I am meeting to tell them what’s going on.  Afterall, someone must listen to 80s hair bands with nostalgia.  It is one of my gifts to the world.

 

This week, I encourage you to pay attention to the stories you are telling yourself.  These are, to use the metaphor from yesterday in church, seeds that are planted and tended in the soil of your soul.  I invite you to listen to the color commentary being offered by the chatter of your brain about what you are experiencing and encountering.  I invite you to be awake and aware for God’s voice, how God is tending the soil of your soul.  Tomorrow, we will turn toward and tune in to an ancient story about God’s voice.  But for now, may you and I listen to our words, pay attention to our responses and reactions, and see how God is seeking to co-author our story in such a time as this.

 

Prayer: Creating and collaborating God, when I get too focused today on all that is wrong, open my heart, ears, imagination, and life to remember that You bring life to mangers and tombs and to all sorts of places that are peculiar and odd and unusual.  If you brough life to the strange in the past, may I be open to You cultivating life in my soul today.  May this truth help me tell and live a better story in these days.  Amen.