There is an old rabbinic tale that goes like this: Once upon a time there was a man who was traveling through a village on his way to a distant city. He sought shelter with the well-know, hospitable village rabbi. As they ate a simple supper together in the rabbi's home, the traveler remarked at how sparse the rabbi's furnishings were, as he saw only a few chairs, a table and some books. The rabbi responded that he was amazed at how few items the traveler possessed, as he had only a suitcase. The traveler replied, "But I am only passing through." The rabbi said, "So am I, so am I."
The Apostle Paul, a Jewish Pharisee yet a Roman citizen, writes from his Roman prison, telling the Philippians, "Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like his own."
Philippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia. They were proud of their Roman citizenship. They knew how to live in one place yet be citizens of another, with all its benefits, privileges and responsibilities. Paul uses their familiarity with this concept to help them understand their situation in Christ. Yes, they were living in the world, a particular culture, with all it's assumptions and expectations, but they were citizens of another place. Having been firmly planted in heaven, through Christ, their cultural environment was not to hold power over them any more. They could stand back from it and see it for what it was--a transient, temporary phenomenon which would pass away. The anxiety that their cultural environment produced in them could be released; they belonged to an eternal kingdom.
What in your life is making you most anxious today? Can you find, within yourself, that spacious place where you can let go because, in reality, you are living elsewhere?
I find my prayer time on the 4th Wednesday is a great time for me, if only monthly, to let go and not worry. I enjoy meditating quietly. Praying for others. Listening to what ever music I choose that time. I would like to find a more often time than that. I jsut havn't yet.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of the place to escape the most anxiety producing situation, I like the Ecclesiastes 2: 13-16, commentary that I read in one of our WPPC library books, The Divine Feminine, by Rabbi Rami Shapiro. I reproduce it for you, as follows:
ReplyDelete13 Then I saw that wisdom
excels folly as light excels darkness.
14 The wise have eyes in their head,
but fools walk in darkness.
Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them. 15 Then I said to myself, “What
happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I
said to myself that this also is vanity. 16 For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise
or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the
wise die just like fools?
Rami comments that, “Imagine that you are walking through a dark house at midday. The curtains are heavy & drawn tightly shut. No light enters the house, and you stumble blindly through each room. The foolish light a candle and pick their way among the shadows. The wise open the curtains and bathe the house in light, walking confidently wherever they will. Wisdom will not rescue you from death, but She will allow you to live without fear.”
I see my seeking a quiet place to remind myself that I can choose to live without fear & anxiety, as Jesus has conquered that greatest fear, earthly death.