Blessed are those who Hope

 

I decided to try to do my Lectio Divina on the daily readings. Today's readings are Jeremiah 7:5-10; Psalm 1; and Luke 16:19-31.

My way of doing Lectio is to circle the words that speak to me as I read. The following words are the words I circled in today's reading: seeks, heart, desert, change, trust, tree, fears not, fruit, understand, hope, delights, season, fade, chaff, kept, bosom, crossing and listen.

Seeking is a lifelong endeavor. It begins with the heart. In the beginning, we experience dryness and doubt, a sort of desert, which happens in any kind of change. With time and trust, we set roots down into our soul, like that of a tree. We learn to fear not when things don't go our way, and rejoice when we see fruit.

Understanding is not the goal; hope is, the ability to delight in what we have, as life is full of seasons, and it is hope that will sustain us even when we fade or feel like chaff.

Because God is kept in our bosom until we reach the crossing. We just need to listen to our heart to be reminded of these things. 

For want of insight

Insight. In the world of psychology, it is the mark of mental health. In the world of spirituality, it is the mark of atunement.

I think insight is so important because it is a mark of growth. It takes life as it comes, instead of trying to fit everything neatly into a box of my own creation.

I think of this in light of recent conversations held on Christian Mystics. The topic concerned the calling of God, but the conversation quickly turned to other things, such as the question of duality, the tendency to use scripture as a static verse, the need to evolve in our spiritual world.

That got me to thinking, we all struggle with the need to control. Yes, even in the spiritual realm, we want to control the game, to know what is happening, to explain the process. And in that light, I think insight can be the antidote. Insight can help us let go. Insight can be the inflatable that helps us flow with the process.

For it is true, we understand in stages. If we do not change in our understanding, we remain quite rigid, like statues in a church. Insight allows us to see the new, to understand in a different way, to grow as we go forward.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of the scribes and pharisees of scripture was their lack of insight. They had the law and the prophets, which they understood perfectly. So perfectly that when Jesus came as a fulfillment of those prophecies, they could not accept him. He did not fit in the "box."

Insight is what brings the monastic realm out into the world because it is insight that allows us to live in the spirit of God. It is insight that turns a simple activity into one of light and grace. It is insight that keeps us from settling for less.

The only way I can diminish my need to control is by opening to insight. Then, I will not need to know or understand perfectly, because I will know it is an ongoing process.