Finding stillness amidst the chaos of this world.
It has been quite a few months since my last blog entry. I will try t fill you in, and then share a meditation that I wrote many years ago and is relevant to today’s chaotic world.
Maybe a week after my last blog entry, my wife handed me divorce papers. My world was turned upside down, and right in the middle of college exams. I was forced to move and essentially start a new life. Since then the pandemic has gripped the nation in a number of different ways. Society, in some ways, has fundamentally changed. The political dichotomy has only seem to grow, and the world is full of unknowns. Personally, I have graduated college with a Bachelors degree in history, I have started painting once again, I have learned to ride a motorcycle, and my life personal life has gotten smaller as I learn to find stillness in a world that never stops moving or making noise.
With that said, I found an old meditation of mine that I will be reflecting upon this weekend. We should all learn to seek peace and stillness within ourselves.
Water of Life
There are few persistent elements that form a thread through the entirety of scripture: bread, water, wine, etc. Water, perhaps, is most significant.
It was by water that God cleansed the world. God parted the waters of the Red Sea to save his people. It was by Moses’ anger that water flowed from a rock. It is by water we are baptized, and thus cleansed of stains of our fallen nature. It was water, that Christ turned into wine. It is by water we are grafted into His Holy Church, the body of Christ.
Water is an example to the Christian life…
Water rests in the lowliest of places. It is unassuming and takes the shape of the world in which it rests. It provides life and refreshment to everyone around it. Water in its stillness reflects the true face of the world that would choose to gaze into its depths. In its purity, one can see through to the deepest parts of its being, and therefore the truth therein.
Water is patient. It does not fight, but takes the path of least resistance. Yet, it is persistent, and in time can change the face of the world
Water is life, quenching our thirst, and renewing us amidst the deserts of this life. It is a renewal of life, washing away the collected impurities of the world. Without water to keep us refreshed, to keep us clean, we would surely die.
So it is like us with Christ.
Christ in us is our living water. He is our wellspring, without whom our spirit would surely die of thirst amidst the arid spiritual deserts of this world. Christ is our redeemer, washing our souls clean with the blood of his sacrifice, without which our souls would be forever marred by the stain of our iniquities. He is our peace, the stillness in whom we may see the face of our true self.
To be like Christ is to be like water, that we may fall down like rain upon the rest of the world, like God’s Love has fallen upon us, and to be a refreshment to those trapped in the arid spiritual desert of this world, until they find the oasis on their own, the oasis that is Christ. We must flow forth like a river, and follow the hills and valleys of His will, wherever it may lead us.
