Attentiveness
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Daily Reading: John 5:17 – 30
Focus Passage:
Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does." (Jn. 5:19 – 20)
Perhaps this passage could become an alternative to WWJD (“What Would Jesus Do?”). “What Would Jesus Do?” is a hypothetical guess. There are no firm answers about what Jesus would do in any given contemporary situation, only hints and guesses. Frankly, the phrase can be used to justify any number of responses.
Further, WWJD assumes that the person asking the question has taken upon himself or herself the full spirit of Jesus. While I believe we each are connected intimately to the Father, we live mostly unaware of that connection, and thus don’t see life completely as Jesus does.
Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing. Perhaps we should adopt this standard for our lives. Like him, we should see what the Father does, then do it ourselves.
This could be a simple byword for our discipleship, and it has some merit. Of course, it does make one huge assumption. Before we can “do what the Father is doing,” we have to “see what the Father is doing.” I suspect for most of us, this sort of seeing is our biggest challenge in spiritual becoming.
The spiritual life invites us to greater attentiveness. On the spiritual journey, our capacity to notice grows. We see God more clearly, and also see ourselves, others, and the world with more honesty and compassion.
This attentiveness is the most rigorous part of the spiritual journey. We really do love God. We want to do what is right and good, what makes a difference in the world. But our seeing gets distracted by mundane matters that eat up our days. We get blinded by the glittery things that call for our attention day-by-day.
I often use an image of the Niagara Falls for God’s ongoing work. God’s love, goodness, and nature pour over the world like the mighty Niagara Falls . . . millions of tons of water every second cascading over the falls. We stand at the bottom of the falls, catching a couple of drops in our little glass bottles. We miss much of what God does in us and around us at every moment.
Someone memorably said, “We are but narrow-necked bottles at the very Niagara of grace.” Indeed.
Spiritually, our challenge is to wake up and see what is present already. In our prayer and practice, we open ourselves to ways we can catch more of what God is doing, the Niagara-grace falling around us at every second.
It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to do the things we see God doing if we are not able to see what God is doing. Meditative prayer, spiritual reflection, Sabbath-keeping, and awareness prayer are contemplative practices that lend themselves to seeing God at work, and then doing what we see in concert with God.
For Reflection:
What do you see God doing in your life? What does God seem to be doing in your community? What do you observe God doing in the world?
How is God inviting you to join God in that work?
Daily Reading: John 5:17 – 30
Focus Passage:
Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does." (Jn. 5:19 – 20)
Perhaps this passage could become an alternative to WWJD (“What Would Jesus Do?”). “What Would Jesus Do?” is a hypothetical guess. There are no firm answers about what Jesus would do in any given contemporary situation, only hints and guesses. Frankly, the phrase can be used to justify any number of responses.
Further, WWJD assumes that the person asking the question has taken upon himself or herself the full spirit of Jesus. While I believe we each are connected intimately to the Father, we live mostly unaware of that connection, and thus don’t see life completely as Jesus does.
Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing. Perhaps we should adopt this standard for our lives. Like him, we should see what the Father does, then do it ourselves.
This could be a simple byword for our discipleship, and it has some merit. Of course, it does make one huge assumption. Before we can “do what the Father is doing,” we have to “see what the Father is doing.” I suspect for most of us, this sort of seeing is our biggest challenge in spiritual becoming.
The spiritual life invites us to greater attentiveness. On the spiritual journey, our capacity to notice grows. We see God more clearly, and also see ourselves, others, and the world with more honesty and compassion.
This attentiveness is the most rigorous part of the spiritual journey. We really do love God. We want to do what is right and good, what makes a difference in the world. But our seeing gets distracted by mundane matters that eat up our days. We get blinded by the glittery things that call for our attention day-by-day.
I often use an image of the Niagara Falls for God’s ongoing work. God’s love, goodness, and nature pour over the world like the mighty Niagara Falls . . . millions of tons of water every second cascading over the falls. We stand at the bottom of the falls, catching a couple of drops in our little glass bottles. We miss much of what God does in us and around us at every moment.
Someone memorably said, “We are but narrow-necked bottles at the very Niagara of grace.” Indeed.
Spiritually, our challenge is to wake up and see what is present already. In our prayer and practice, we open ourselves to ways we can catch more of what God is doing, the Niagara-grace falling around us at every second.
It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to do the things we see God doing if we are not able to see what God is doing. Meditative prayer, spiritual reflection, Sabbath-keeping, and awareness prayer are contemplative practices that lend themselves to seeing God at work, and then doing what we see in concert with God.
For Reflection:
What do you see God doing in your life? What does God seem to be doing in your community? What do you observe God doing in the world?
How is God inviting you to join God in that work?
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