Blogs

Reflections of the ministers and senior staff.

Blogs

Reflections of the ministers and senior staff.
3 minutes reading time (666 words)

The Gift of Change

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Have you ever been lost, and can’t find where you are going? I’ve been lost many times: In a country where I didn’t speak the language. In a big city where all the streets seem to be one way. What do you do is this situation? Ask for directions? Seek assistance? Check the map? Retrace your steps?

It is frustrating to know, and not know, at the same time, where you are, and how to get to where you want to go. “It’s the journey, not the destination,” they say. Well, maybe. But when you are lost, those words don’t seem helpful.

On a spiritual journey, feeling lost, entering the unknown, and seeking guidance, is how it works. Living life as a sacred journey is an invitation to open our eyes, hearts, and minds in new ways. It is a call to both outward practice and inner reflection. It is an opportunity to step out of comfort zones, let go of old patterns, and engage new insights. It asks us, again and again, to embrace the gift of change.

Along with every part of the outer journey, there is also an inner component—a feeling, a learning, a prompting to pay attention, go deeper, and live into a growing edge. This can be an uncomfortable place, to meet a part of oneself that is resistant to change, resistant to acknowledge or face something difficult.

At the recent ERUUF spiritual practices retreat, we explored resources to cultivate resilience in difficult times. To begin, we were all invited to identify a challenge we were facing, creatively express/write it with colorful paper and markers, then place it in a large bowl next to the central chalice. This represented a collective ritual to honor our own journey, and also hold it with each other in community, as we entered a day of practice—meditation, breath, creative expression, sharing, movement, and singing.

One of the spiritual practices we engaged in was being present, in this moment, in the body, grounded, centered, and present. Mindful, embodied awareness. When life brings us challenges or difficult experiences, plus a range of FEELINGS, the reflex of the mind can be to distract, pretend, or find anything that will help avoid having to FACE and FEEL the difficult edge. The practice of being present is a way to engage in the work of resistance against the forces that keep us unconscious and out of awareness. Sounds simple to say, but a bit more difficult in practice.

To welcome and invite change on the spiritual journey is to recognize that if we are always comfortable, change is not possible. The difficulties of life present us with an opportunity to grow. There will be days when the journey holds more challenge than ease, more grief than joy, a sense of more loss than gain. There are times when our burdens feel heavy, or we might even feel we’ve lost our way.

When we encounter obstacles, fear, discomfort, or pain, the very human tendency is to somehow shift this or distract from it. But sometimes the real gift from inner spiritual work comes from being present to the pain. Richard Rohr writes:

We must learn to stay with the pain of life without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning. The spiritual journey is a constant interplay between moments of awe followed by a general process of surrender to that moment.

On the spiritual journey there are parts of our being that may get in the way.

For the journey asks us to let go and enter a space of allowing, feeling, and even unknowing. To surrender.

If we want to grow, if we want to change the world, we must find ways to update our own inner software, to own our limitations, and to break free of all the things that keep us separate.

This is a core part of the spiritual journey—to embrace the gift of change.

Peace,

Daniel

 

 

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

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