You were learning to dance on the rim of mystery, looking for depth and peace. Some of your first steps were: 1) slow down, 2) find some solitude and 3) simply your life.

    Next?

    Fourth, to keep in touch with all that you are and all that God is, you may need to become more reflective. Scripture reminds us that the really blessed people meditate day and night, and are like trees planted by the river, drinking up nourishment and life. Remember, rich faith doesn’t stop at the surface level. It is planted in fertile soil and draws life from the deep places. The Psalmist goes on to indicate that those who don’t dig in and go deep get pushed around a lot. They are at the mercy of their environment like “the chaff that the wind drives away.” (see Psalm 1)

    The deepest of meaning and vitality are found in the mystery of things, even the smallest and most commonplace. We need eyes that see and ears that hear... because down under the surface, beneath what we have always seen and heard and always expect to see and hear, run deeper meanings and realities waiting to be tapped. Says Samuel Miller,

We need to cast away our precious securities, in order to see what is happening for the first time at a new level, with all the fresh vigor of creation’s first morning... Creation is still a reality, but only when we are able and willing to stand face-to-face with its disturbing mystery. It is a mystery that constitutes the climate for believing and without the mystery any faith is a bore.

Dare to reflect!

    Dare to reflect! Settle down beside the drama, the poetry, the mystery of whatever faith we have. Reflect on the tough stuff, too. How do you handle pain, boredom, sickness, tragedy, death, life, birth, and nature? This will wake up your slumbering self at levels that can be reached in no other way. Don’t be afraid to do this! The Christian faith looks further into what life means than most casual observers see at first glance.

    So don’t stand back. Come inside the faith. Take that daring leap. Like swimmers in the tide, rather than fighting the forces around us, we need to feel for the current and relax ourselves into its flow. Don’t fight faith. Don’t merely analyze it. Revel in it. In Him! He won’t let you drown.

    If you have never had faith, you can learn to believe.

    If your faith has gone flat, it can be freshened.

    Sure, it may require new habits of thought, new disciplines, new direction. And, of course, it demands a choice that you make and keep on making. But the miracle is not your own ability to be reborn, rather it is the unlimited grace available to you. Hope may be just beyond your first step. Come dance with me on the rim of mystery.

    You can believe! Faith can be found — and renewed!

    I know.

    Firsthand.

Title: "Upon Reflection"
Author: Lynn Anderson
Publication Date: May 2, 2001

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