stations:awaken

July 5, 2009 // No Comments »

Fusion has been considering ways in which we might be awake or asleep to the way of God in our world.  He is working everywhere and often in ways we might not recognize.  Tonight, we encountered a room full of eight stations to reflect, pray, consider art - song - film - and create art - poetry - etc.  The next several posts will be the content of the AWAKEN:STATIONS.

Please use this post to respond to the following…

HOW DOES ENGAGING IN STATIONS: which are interactive, experiential, sensory, creative, and contemplative - CONNECT WITH YOU?

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stations:feel

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FEEL

Watch the first few moments of Garden State.  What words describe what you see?

What state of existence would you say you are closer to . . .

ASLEEP < ————————————————————— > AWAKE

What factors are in your life that push you toward being Numb?

What factors are in your life that alert you to be Present?

The prophet Jeremiah is sick of sharing and living the message of Yahweh to a people who are blind to Him.  The prophet, an ikon of God to the people is sick of it – saying, ‘forget it’ – protesting from the pain it’s caused.  God has seemingly not shown up for him – and he’s done.  I no doubt believe he was quickly becoming a cynic, jaded, and carrying a laundry list of complaints for the way his life is turning out.

Hurt does this to us – often we distance ourselves so not to feel life and God.

But Jeremiah admits to the power of God – there is no way to remain asleep.  He says, “Sometimes I think, ‘I will make no mention of his message.  I will not speak as his messenger any more.’  But then his message becomes like a fire locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul.  I grow weary of trying to hold it in; I cannot contain it.’”

We say, “Awaken us to You.”

Consider the person, the event, the attitude, or the struggle that contributes to the numbness in your life.  Write the word on a slip of paper before you.

Prayerfully repeat “Awaken us to You” as you light the paper and drop it into the bowl to burn up.

* What would it mean for God to ‘ignite’ you to a life that is PRESENT?

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stations:release

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RELEASE

At this station you will be using the act of breathing as a way to engage surrender and release.  For a full explaination of the practice you can read page 12 in the Awaken booklet.

* Lightly notice the speediness of your breath and thoughts.

* Remember your desire for God in the form of a prayer or wordless feeling.

* Begin breathing slowly deep down into your diaphragm-stomach area.  You can put your hands on this area and feel it swell out with your in-breath.  Gradually fill your lungs from this bottom point inward.

* Hold the breath briefly, but without closing your throat.

* Release your breath very slowly, twice as slowly as you breathed in.  Pause at the bottom of your breath briefly with a very still mind.

Continue this rhythm of breathing for a few minutes or longer, but now with the specific intent of breathing in all that is of God, and breathing out all in your body and mind that is not.  You need not think of anything in terms of content; just retain a naked intent to be filled from head to toe with all that is of God, and to release whatever may come between you and God.  In the process let your body and mind sink beneath the crowded, surface tension to that more spacious and free place where you are confidently grounded in God.

KIDS OPTION

* Read to or with your child the book provided, Journey to the Heart. 

* Engage silence together as adult/child. 

* Ask questions about the experience of silence.

* Pray together that you will both be AWAKE to God.

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stations:see

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SEE

Then those ’sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about?  When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or see you thirsty and give you a drink?  When did we ever see you a stranger and show you hospitality?  When did we ever see you naked and give you our clothes?  And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to visit you?’  Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to one of the least, someone overlooked or ignored, that was Me—you did it to Me.’  Matthew 25:37-40

Even if our eyes are being opened, how can we see the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the prisoner, if we are not putting ourselves in places where they are?  How am I reorienting my life and my location so I am crossing paths with the overlooked and ignored, so I can see them?

Once we look into the eyes of “the other,” we cannot stop there?  In the Scripture, the King doesn’t respond to the seeing as much as the doing?  What are you doing?

In the video clip and throughout the movie (Holly, 2006), Patrick is struggling with the tension of how to respond to the brokenness and injustice he sees around him.  Do I need more souvenirs?  Do the souvenirs perpetuate the problem?  Do I pay to rescue a girl from slavery, knowing the money will be used to buy more girls and continue the abuse?

Who is “the other” or what is the injustice you are seeing?  What tensions are you holding as you attempt or desire to respond to the injustice?  With whom are you sharing this burden or tension, so they can help you imagine and create restoration and a new way forward?

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stations:move

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MOVE

Consider the items before you, running shoes, candles, and the cross.  Weeks ago we read an excerpt of an email I received years ago before we began Fusion.  The email was a challenge to several church planters about to begin their ventures in cities across the nation.  I have been forever touched by the word picture from a mentor.

Read it again and write what comes to mind.  Respond and react – not being overly careful to judge the thoughts that come to mind.

MONKS ON THE MOVE (an email sent by Andy Williams)
“So, bottom line, this is what I want to see out of us over time:
Depth with direction. Picture a monk in one of those heavy, itchy brown robes. but with the best, lightest New Balance running shoes you can buy. 

Monks on the move.

Deep thinking, deep feeling, deeply CHANGED men. But they don’t sit in a dark, damp monastery and chant and plant flowers all day. They MOVE OUT every day, all day with courage, character and compassion into all the places God gives them to move-toward their wives, their children, their co-workers, their neighbors, the least, the lonely, the widows, the orphans, to the ends of the earth..”

After responding to the words – imagine the ways you are moving out . . . consider the deep desires to move out more fully.  Express to God what you are feeling.

Identify the dread or heaviness you may experience as you consider these things.  Be honest and express that to God.

Light one of the candles before you – as an action of being ‘awakened’ to the movement of God in you.  As you light the candle, consider the way the light penetrates the dark room.  How the light is growing as more of an illuminating force the more others identify the movement of God in them.

“Spirituality is not to be learned in flight from the world, by fleeing from things to a place of solitude; rather we must learn to maintain an inner solitude regardless of where we are or who we are with.  We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.” – Meister Eckhart

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stations:end/begin

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thanks to Loren O’Laughlin and his amazing work, “Saul, Saul”

END/BEGIN

Ponder the face of Saul – the surroundings of his body.  Imagine the scene of Saul as Jesus violently interrupts his day, his life-mission, his entire world.

Feel Saul’s world as it goes dark. 

It is the end of Saul.

John 9: Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”  Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?” 

In the ending of Saul – in his despair he has no pride.  In his blindness he can no longer preserve his own way. 

It is the end of Saul.

Awakened now, Paul’s life is illuminated to what was meant to be.

Open eyes make us Open to God.

* What moves you about this story?

* How does this intimate experience with God connect with yours?

* How is this story a contrast with your own life with God?

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stations:share

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SHARE

Look over the “canvas” before you. By the end of the night it will be an expression of our collective awareness to God, a mosaic story of the way we are AWAKE to God.

Consider how you have/and are AWAKE: SEEING SENSING KNOWING DOING. Draw or write in each of the tiles an aspect of your life experience that has shaped you – “awakened” you – to see God/life/others differently. To better reflect on each of the four aspects, you may want to consider the following questions:

* How has the way you SEE or perceive gone through a shift?

* How has the way you KNOW or fully assimilate gone through a shift?

* How has the way you SENSE or feel gone through a shift?

* How has the way you DO or engage gone through a shift?

KIDS OPTION

On the butcher paper provided, draw a picture that represents . . .

‘Where do I see God most?’

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stations:empty

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EMPTY

(listen/watch Be Thou My Vision)

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart

None is all else to me, save that you are

You’re my best thought by day or by night

Waking or sleeping, your presence, my light

Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word

I ever with you and you with me, Lord

You’re my great father and I’m your true son

You in me dwelling, and I with you one

Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise

You’re my inheritance, now and always

You and you only, first in my heart

High King of heaven, my treasure you are

High King of heaven, my victory won

May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s sun

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all

* How do you feel as you listen to this song?

* Do you sense struggle?  Resolve? Or something other? 

* How does the verb ‘empty’ and this song find any connection to one another?

I was struck by the resolve and willingness to attribute the highest value to the King – praising God.  It wasn’t that the words are so unique – but that it exposed the duty and obligation I often feel toward God.  It exposed my all too often lack of intimacy and joy with the Father – and it ‘awoke’ me to the contrast of obligation – a life lived through intimacy and awareness.   Ron Martoia writes, ‘doing flows organically from a deep sensing that is a response to what is happing and arising around us.  This sort of doing flows from a deep self emptying modeled by Jesus . . . this is a self emptying doing, not a self filling accomplishment.’ 

Our prayer then becomes, ‘be my vision . . . and my greatest desire.’

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stations:reflect

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REFLECT

Sit before mirror.  Is it awkward to stare at yourself?  How willing are we to look deep within us – to truly know ourselves?  Joan Chittester says, ‘the real material of spiritual development is not in books.  It is in the subject matter of the self.  Silence is that place just before the voice of God . . . silence is the cave through which the soul must travel, clearing out the dissonance of life as we go, so that the God who is waiting for us to notice can fill us.”

Consider these reflective questions in this moment of silence…

RULE OF LIFE is a pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness.  What is my current rule of life?

How is God moving me toward change in my daily life?

What spiritual practices aid your intimacy with God?

AWARENESS OF GOD

God, How have you been addressing me through my thoughts, feelings, work, relationships, symptoms, longings, frustrations, dreams and failures?

SENSITIVITY TO OTHERS

In what ways have I considered others above myself? What needs am I most sensitive to? Where am I most cold—most unresponsive?  Am I willing to pray for a change of heart? Who could I be ignoring around me? 

PATTERNS WITHIN THE CITY

Have you considered your regular patterns and how important they can be in connecting to God and to others?

Develop consistency in the places you go – and pray that God might help you be aware of Him and of the relationships you can build.

Consider what irregularities can you force into your life that you might see God in new places and in new people?

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