I wrote this in June, when I was trying to get back in touch with this practice:

Isaiah 2:3 He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.

The Message

I love this idea: that God’s ways fit the way we are made; that learning to live by God’s laws is to put ourselves in the flow of life, rather than taking ourselves out of it or trying to live by some artificial set of rules. Of course, our ego, our desires, often work at cross purposes to the ways of the Divine, but that’s not because those ways don’t work for us. As anyone who has ever gotten into a mess because of the call of desire – whether it’s shopping, or love, addiction or just the determination to show that I know what I’m doing and I can fix my life myself and follow my own bullheadedness – ego often sets us up for self-defeat. I think that is what is meant by “pride goeth before a fall”. It’s not that we shouldn’t feel good about who we are and what we are able to do, but it’s the lack of perspective, that we rely too heavily on what we can accomplish ourselves, and leave God and others out of the equation.

I was listening to Sidney Poitier talk about his life the other night, and he was so intent on pointing out that there were many times in his life where he came that close to disaster, to ending up like so many other young, African American men either dead or in jail, that he could not credit himself fully with his success. He was aware that luck, or providence, or outside spiritual forces (forces was the word he used) had for some reason saved him from the potential results of his own behavior.

So I have been gone for a while, away from this practice, and I can see again the need. It helps me stay focused, centered, grounded in the idea of God, and what that means in my life. It reminds me that I am not the center of things, and that only by allying myself with the Divine Other will I find my true core, discover my purpose, and fulfill my deepest hopes and longings.

Prayer: Dear God, Sometimes I forget how deeply ingrained you are in my very being. Help me remember, take the time, create the space to feel Your Divine Presence, to follow the practices that bring me into Your Ways. Amen