“Tumult” generally refers to confusion and noise, and so if we use the word, we’re usually referring to things like a crazy thunderstorm or a chaotic crowd. But waking up this morning there was a tumult in my head. All sorts of thoughts were running around, bumping into each other. Details of what is on my schedule for the day and week, relationships that need tending, work, caring for the household, and a few other odds and ends kept crowding forward fighting for my attention.

I know I’m not the only one who wakes up this way sometimes. Many of us do: we’ll have work we need to get done, or we’re sorting through problems, or we’re worried about relationships or responsibilities. It’s tumultuous in our heads sometimes. Often, this is not necessarily a bad thing, since it’s a reflection of a full life. On the other hand, it can be an experience that makes us fret, because all these details and the way they can sometimes crowd our minds of a morning makes us anxious.

The psalmist keeps us company in these times of crowded and tumultuous thoughts. The tumult, the details, the tasks, the relationships are all like the Ohio River: sometimes it flows quietly, but often with currents that cross each other, and sometimes with whitecaps. We can sit on the side of the river, though, on a bench, quietly, and remember that the river is separate from us. It is part of our life, for sure – in our area the vast majority of us have to at least cross it from time to time – but it doesn’t suck us in. Like Elijah in the cave amid the fierce winds that swirled around, we listen for the still, small voice that is the voice of God. The psalmist sings out in Psalm 62: “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.”

Our souls wait for God in silence, exactly in the middle of the tumult. In fact, it is the way we have of stepping back from the edge of the water to watch it calmly. Because God is our refuge and our rock, we can look at all the things in our life as just that – things. Not our hope, not our salvation. These may be wonderful things. they may be things that are, in fact, gifts from God that help us to live full of hope and joy. But they are from God. Our hope is from God. Without that still and quiet place of resting in God, we cannot gain perspective on the tumult of our lives and minds.

Prayer, then, is a gift. We might call it meditation. In any case, it is the capacity God gives us to wait for God alone in quiet, to rest in the shelter of God’s arms. It does not take us away from our life, for God calls to us wherever we are. But it means we understand that our life is surrounded by God, who is greater and quieter than the demands of our days. God gives us the gift of work, for sure, but also the gift of rest. For our hope is in God.

As you find moments of quiet in your mind and in your day, blessings to you all,

Michelle

~ by admin on June 7, 2010.

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation