Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome back to our series of short reflections and meditations.
Stay here.
There's a little line in the Prophet Uzziah that I think would be helpful for all of us to give a little bit more attention.
From Uzziah chapter 30.
And it says,
In returning and rest you shall be saved.
In quietness and in trust,
Shall be your strength.
And I love that first word,
Returning.
Returning is very different to things like striving and achieving and getting further.
I think returning really hits home because.
.
.
A lot of life is about leaving.
We leave the present moment because we're thinking about what comes next and we leave ourselves because we're worried about what someone else thinks and we leave our peace.
Because we start rehearsing conversations that we haven't had yet,
And we leave what matters because something more urgent demands our attention.
And sometimes we leave God.
Without even realising that we've gone.
And then we discover.
That the invitation that we're receiving.
Isn't a someplace new.
It's not being taken off in a new direction.
The invitation is to come back.
To return.
To come back to this moment.
To come back to our breath,
To come back to what's real,
To come back to love.
To come back to God.
And what I love about it.
Is that it's so simple.
And so ordinary.
And it's very undramatic.
You don't have to fix yourself.
Or explain where you've been or apologize for being distracted.
You don't have to become peaceful before you come back to peace.
All you have to do is return.
And that's a big part of what prayer is.
Not just saying a lot of things to God or trying to drum up some sort of profound experience.
Sometimes prayer is just noticing that you've wandered.
And coming back.
And you might have to do it a hundred times a day and that's okay.
Come back.
Your mind wanders.
Become conscious of it,
Come back.
You suddenly feel anxious and notice,
Come back.
You can feel that you've lost your patience.
We come back.
You consciously realize you've forgotten what matters.
You come back.
You get caught up in the noise and the movement of what's going on.
Come back.
And notice what Isaiah says next.
He says,
In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.
Quietness and trust.
That's the big far cry from having everything worked out and being in control.
So strength doesn't always look like holding everything together.
Strength doesn't look like.
Making out that everything's perfect.
Strength can sometimes look like losing your grip and letting the moment be what it is and letting yourself be who you are and trusting that you don't have to carry the whole world.
You can let go.
So wherever you are right now,
Just notice.
Are you somewhere else?
Lost in thought,
Already living in tomorrow,
Or next week,
Or month,
Or year?
Or maybe you've got yesterday,
Or last week,
Or last month,
Or last year playing on repeat in your head.
Whatever it is,
It's okay.
You can come back.
And there's no preamble required.
No compulsory class you have to sit first.
All you need to do is return.
And wrist.
Just a small remembering.
I can come back.
Come back to yourself.
Come back to this moment.
Come back to God.
And then rest.
And I invite you just to sit.
With that and in that.
For the next couple of minutes.
You Friend,
The invitation is always to return.
The welcome mat is always out.
The arms are always open.
The table is always set.
Comeback.
I invite you to take a deep breath in.
And out.
And to carry that beautiful truth into the day.
Whenever you notice that you've walked away.
Have moved away,
Are going the wrong direction,
You can come back.
And may grace,
Peace and love be with you and hold you as you do.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
