Preparing to Receive
By Kirk Ruehl, Hospice Chaplain
I’m not an early morning person even though my three
year old would like to make me one. I used to dream about having an hour
of quiet in the house to pray and sit in silence. I’m lucky if I get 15
minutes! Granted things have gotten better now that it’s warmer and
there’s earlier light. We’ve got a new bench in the garden which calls
to me. I follow like a novitiate.
I have to.
I’m told that the busier his day, the earlier
Martin Luther rose to pray. I understand that. A day without the right
start turns anxious fast. The details get the best of me and I can’t be
very available to others. Not that I’m without exception but I would
call it a professional commitment to “rest in God” for a few minutes at
the beginning of the day.
The challenge is to keep it simple. I have some
40 books on my “inspiration shelf” much of it poetry, I maintain a
personal prayer list which I revise monthly, and I have two daily
devotional publications. Like I said the challenge is to keep it
simple. So here’s my rule: the less time I have the more silence I
keep. My busy day means I need all the space God can create inside me to
receive it. Filling that space with words won’t prepare me very well.
So if I have time, I’ll read a poem, a daily scripture lesson and do my
prayer litany. The poem and the scripture I read aloud because it
enlivens the words somehow. The prayer I do silently. I’ve got my
“cheat sheet” ready if I’ve forgotten a name or a request but I really
try to lean into the spaciousness of the silence. Giving myself
permission to do that makes a big difference.
On the other hand if I’m rushed I just sit,
sit
and breathe. I do everything I can to allow all other thought to pass
right through the space. If I had to define it further I’d say that I
breathe out anxiety and I breathe in peace. Martin Luther it isn’t;
Simple it is.
David Whyte has a poem which challenges me to
begin this receiving process even earlier in the day: before I get out of
bed. “In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,” Whyte
says, “there is a small opening into the new day which closes the
instant you begin your plans.” Oh boy, is that a word to
my heart! I often wake with lists of things to do and my “small
opening” closes fast. I’m not preparing to receive anything but a
headache!
Whyte continues and clarifies magnificently,
“What you can plan is too small for you to live. What you can live
wholeheartedly will make plans enough for the vitality hidden in your
sleep.”
His is a poetic understanding which sets me
straight on the most important thing to remember about preparation for my
day: trust. Trust the divine “vitality hidden in my sleep” and follow
it where ever it leads. Let go of the lists. Expect surprises. Open
to my gifts and to the God-given opportunity for service. Receive the
Day! Receive indeed.
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