By: Charley Rastle
Our lives are an amazing journey. For much of my life, I just followed the stream, reacted to situations, and was swept along. As I got older, I became more interested in how I lived my life, how I was responding to events, and what was motivating me. Over 25 years ago, I met a wonderful woman named Jane, married her, and joined this church. This was the start of my deeper journey.
One of the many things I enjoy about our church is how it supports people as they explore their relationship with God. Everyone is going to have a different relationship. For some, it is the reading of scripture, for others it is in the music, or walks in the mountains, or in the relationship with our community. I believe that we are all in God, and God is in us, so all of these are helpful for a person to explore their relationship with God.
For me, I am drawn to a contemplative practice, making time each day to sit in silence and open myself to God. In these times of silence, I release my thoughts and listen for God.
This practice helps me in all aspects of my life, from how I react to situations in the workplace or to the challenges in our country and the world. I try to move from looking at the world through the eyes of my ego, or false self, to looking from the eyes of God. This false self is built on all the events of our lives, the impact of our life experiences, both good and bad. It becomes wired into us, and we just react to situations, many times without any real conscious thought. This is how I interpret what Pedro has been preaching about the past several weeks. The centering practice leads me to die to this false self, let go of those thoughts, and open myself to the love of God, so that I live my life based on the wisdom of God.
I was at a conference with Father Richard Rohr last year. Someone asked him how to survive in this world where acts of hate, prejudice, and selfishness are becoming stronger. Father Richard stated that we needed to move to a contemplative approach to life. We open our hearts to God and look to our God for guidance and wisdom. From this relationship with God, we speak out against injustice, hate, and selfishness, but we do not look at people with different ideas or viewpoints as enemies or as different. We look at them as fellow travelers on the journey of life. And, from the contemplative view, we see the unity of all people and the need to love them all. (Not easy to do!)
This is the path that I want to follow.
