LENTEN MOMENT

Gentle me,

     Holy One,

           into an unclenched moment,

      a deep breath,

          a letting go

               of heavy experiences,

                     of shriveling anxieties,

                           of dead certainties,

that, softened by the silence,

      surrounded by the light,

            and open to the mystery,

I may be found by wholeness,

      upheld by the unfathomable,

            entranced by the simple,

                  and filled with the joy

                        that is you.

                                 – Ted Loder

“… an unclenched moment…” 

How many moments in our lives are clenched?  Clenched with expectations, clenched by whatever baggage we carry into our days, or our relationships? 

“…a letting go of heavy experiences…”  

How heavy some people’s burdens are, by what people carry with them day to day, burdens brought on often by heavy experiences.  What weight we carry.

“…of shriveling anxieties… of dead certainties…”  

Shriveling anxieties… those seeds of doubt, of worry, of uncertainties that can grow into suffocating weeds of paralysis and distress. 

And what of “dead certainties”?   Perhaps those things that are realities in our lives that have lost their meanings.  Would feeling the weight of needing to stay in a destructive relationship qualify as a dead certainty?   Dead certainty…  How many of those do we have in our lives?

“I may be found by wholeness…” A counter-intuitive passive waiting, an unclenched moment of openness that only allows for the mystery to find us.    Not  “I will seek”,   or    “I will find”.    But that it may find me… once I have been gentled enough into an unclenched moment, opened enough to be found by… “wholeness, upheld by the unfathomable, entranced by the simple, and filled with the joy that is you.

    

May the empty spaces of your lettings-go be found by Grace and Peace.