Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome to this special reflection and guided meditation,
Which while is standalone in how it sits,
Also acts as a bridge between the walk through Lent and Easter that we've just completed.
And looks ahead to a 12-day series,
Which will start tomorrow,
Called Beneath the Storm,
Finding the Calm in the Deep Waters of God.
And so before we begin,
I invite you to stop and to bring yourself fully into this moment.
Take a deep breath in and out.
And again,
Deeply in and out.
Feel your body and your spirit coming together in this moment.
Feel your mind drawn to focus on the voice of the spirit as God breathes words of healing and strength and encouragement and possibly challenge into your heart today.
And today we're going to delve a little bit into the paradox at the heart of the Christian life,
One that becomes especially real when life feels uncertain and overwhelming or out of control.
And it's this,
That even in the midst of chaos,
There's a deeper stillness,
That even in the storm,
We are held.
Now,
I know that that might sound like a nice spiritual idea,
Something comforting,
Maybe even poetic,
But the question is,
Is it actually real?
And if it is,
How do we live from that place?
Let's begin with the experience that most of us know well.
There are seasons where life feels like a storm.
Things are shifting quickly.
There's pressure,
Uncertainty,
Perhaps even anxiety.
And then there are other seasons that feel more like a wilderness.
They're dry and they're unclear and you're not quite sure where you are or where you're going.
And in both of those spaces,
The instinct is the same.
We try to stabilize things externally.
We try and regain control.
We try to fix.
We try to manage.
We try to push through.
But the Christian tradition points us somewhere else.
In Acts chapter 17,
St.
Paul,
Standing in the Areopagus in Athens,
Speaks to a group of people searching for truth and meaning.
And he says something extraordinary,
And it's extraordinary because he's not even quoting the Jewish writers that he would have been well-versed and have studied as a rabbi himself,
Pharisee himself,
Not even the words of Jesus.
He quotes the words of the ancient Greek poets.
And in speaking to this group,
He says to them,
In him,
This God that he's speaking of,
We live and move and have our being.
Now,
I want you to understand,
You could see this as a statement about belief,
But I want to give you a slightly different paradigm and suggest to you that this is actually more a statement about reality.
And then there's another letter Paul writes in his letter,
Both to the Colossians and the Philippians,
He touches on this,
Where he describes Christ as the one in whom all things hold together.
So what Paul is suggesting is this,
That beneath everything that appears to be shifting,
There's something that's not shifting.
He's telling us that when everything feels like it's falling apart,
Underneath,
There's something that's actually holding it all together.
Now,
When we come to the words of Jesus,
We see the same idea expressed in a different way.
Jesus says,
Heaven and earth will pass away,
But my words will not pass away.
Jesus says,
I am the truth.
Jesus says,
Before Abraham was,
I am.
So what Jesus is pointing to isn't just a teaching or a moral guidance,
He's pointing to something foundational,
Something unchanging at the heart of reality itself.
And this matters because most of our stress and anxiety comes from attaching ourselves to what's constantly changing.
Circumstances change,
Emotions change,
Other people change,
Even our own sense of self can shift and change.
So if we try to ground ourselves in those things,
We're always going to feel unstable.
It's just what makes sense.
But what if there's another way of living?
What if instead of trying to control the surface of our lives,
We learn to live from a much deeper place,
A place that isn't thrown about by every change,
Because it's rooted in something that doesn't change.
And in thinking about this,
I'd like you to think about the image of the ocean.
Now,
On the surface,
There can be waves,
Wind,
Even violent storms.
Everything's moving,
Unpredictable,
Restless,
Things are turned about,
Tossed about.
But if you go deeper,
While that's happening on the surface,
And you go far beneath the surface,
There's a stillness.
Now,
The storm doesn't go away,
It doesn't disappear.
But it no longer defines the whole of reality.
Despite what's going on up above.
If we can get below that,
We can see that reality is more than just what's happening at the surface and attach ourselves and ground ourselves to that thing that doesn't change.
Now,
This is what the Christian tradition invites us into.
And hear me right,
It's not a life without storms.
And it's not a life without wilderness.
But it is a life where we'll discover that those things are not the deepest truth about our existence,
Because deeper than the storm,
Deeper than any uncertainty,
There is a presence,
A ground,
A reality in which we are already held.
And this is where Paul's words become incredibly practical.
In him,
We live and move and have our being.
Practical,
Because if that's true,
Then it means we are never outside of that presence.
Doesn't matter if things are going well,
It doesn't matter if things are falling apart,
It doesn't matter if we feel close to God,
It doesn't matter if we feel distant.
We are always already within the one who holds all things together.
So the invitation isn't really about going somewhere else.
It's to become aware of what's already true.
To begin,
Even in small ways,
To shift our attention from the surface to the depth.
From what's changing to what is constant.
And this changes how we move through life.
It doesn't mean we stop acting or caring or engaging with the world,
But it does mean that we're no longer driven by the same level of urgency or fear,
Because we begin to trust.
We trust that beneath everything there's something holding,
That beneath everything there's a stillness that we can return to.
And so today,
Whatever your context,
Whether it feels like a storm,
A wilderness,
Or simply the busyness of ordinary life,
You might carry this with you,
That you don't have to hold everything together.
Because you're already being held.
And perhaps the way forward isn't to push harder against the surface,
But to gently return again and again and again to that deeper place where Christ is present,
Where all things are held,
And where even now there is a stillness that remains.
So friends,
I invite you to join me from tomorrow on a 12-day series where we'll learn to recognise the storms,
Where we'll discover what happens when we dare to look below and go to the depths,
When we learn to rest in those depths,
And then how to return to life,
Bringing the peace that we found there.
Just look for the series Beneath the Storm,
Finding the calm in the deep waters of God,
Beginning tomorrow right here on Insight Timer.
A special thank you to everybody who has joined the last 49 days with us here through Lent.
Thank you so much for your presence.
Thank you so much for your kind words in the comments,
Sharing your stories of transformation as you walk through that wilderness and through Easter together.
For the beautiful and generous gifts that many of you have shared with me over that season.
Thank you so much.
Your support goes a long way to helping us continue to do this work.
And it certainly is my honest hope that we can continue to share together like this,
And that you might join us either on the next 12 days in this next series,
Or perhaps just through some of the other offerings that are here on Insight Timer.
And there will be more Lectio Divinas,
More prayers,
And more contemplations on quotes of beauty and depth that will be coming shortly as well,
Along with series just like the one we've just completed and the one we're about to begin.
So I do hope that you'll join us.
So it's with all gratitude that I ask that grace,
Hope and love go with you and remain with you.
Thank you,
My friend.
You're a wonderful and beautiful blessing.
Until tomorrow or the next time we share together.
Bye for now.
