We continue in our third of a series of pilgrimage songs.
Now for Psalm 123 verses 3 and 4.
A Psalm for the uprising.
Show us favor,
O Lord,
Show us favor.
We have had more than enough of contempt.
Long enough have we endured the scorn of the complacent and the contempt of the haughty.
Let us find a comfortable place,
Maybe standing this time or seated on the edge of your chair.
A position that invites us to resistance,
To uprising.
If you're comfortable close your eyes or rest your gaze on a fixed object.
Take a moment to breathe.
Resistance is a perfectly acceptable emotion or response to stimulus around us.
An opportunity for us to bear witness to what it looks like to be part of the human condition.
Mindfulness teacher Shinzen Young has come up with this equation that I have so appreciated in my work with resistance.
Suffering equals pain times resistance.
Suffering equals pain time resistance.
In our Psalm,
The psalmist is fed up,
Feels and senses the pain,
Begins to resist and rise to the occasion against those who are complacent and those who are haughty.
Let's hold those two in our minds,
In our hearts.
What resistance comes up for you?
Do you see faces?
Are there lived experiences?
Is it a feeling that comes up in you about complacency or haughtiness?
What is uprising in you?
Breathe into that.
Can we recognize resistance?
What does it do with our body?
Where does it find itself in our body?
What thoughts come with resistance?
Can we separate what's going on within us from what's happening outside of us?
How do we begin to train our own tolerance for resistance?
Recognizing when it comes up for us so that we can be mindful and connected to what's coming up and invited to consider what that resistance looks like in a courageous and compassionate way.
How do we respond carefully to the world around us filled with complacency and haughtiness?
Show us favor,
O Lord.
Show us favor.
Take a moment to invite new ways of sensing what's going on within you even in the face of an uprising.
Thoughts and feelings.
May the sound of the bell turn a page in our lives for our next steps with the one who will show us favor.
