Aaron Austin | February 10, 2020
I hope you're enjoying our journey through Richard Rohr's Everything Belongs so far. As we move to the second chapter, Rohr begins by saying that prayer is simple. To be honest, I'm not sure it feels simple yet. It doesn't feel like Rohr is complicating things, but even if prayer turns out to be a simple practice, it will never be easy. Perhaps that's part of what he's getting at in this chapter.
Rohr invites us to open our eyes and see beyond Western society's transactional approach to life. He reminds us that we're not striving to attain something we don't already have—we're in God's presence right now. Rather, we are seeking an awareness of God's presence and a stance that helps us see more clearly our life in God.
This morning we met for Watercolor workshop. Painting invites us to seek what Zen masters call "Beginner's Mind." When you try to reproduce a scene with pencil or paint, you begin to notice things you overlooked—the spaces between objects, subtle shifts in hue, or highlights from unnoticed light sources. Since ur minds are constantly categorizing and filling in gaps to help us process the multitudes of information we encounter each day, it can be easy to miss the details. Seeing what's right in front of us as it truly is, is a skill we must cultivate. Each stroke of the brush is an invitation to see the reality before us.
Opening ourselves to new ways of seeing can be frightening and unsettling, but Rohr constantly reminds us that our worth and acceptance is not based on our performance. The beauty of God's invitation is that "we aren't born again. We are born again and again and again."
Perhaps one of the ways we can open our eyes this week is to use the mantra that Rohr provides at the end of this chapter:
God's life is living itself in me. I am aware of life living itself in me.
Or, you might want to look at the litany and mantra written by Kara Kilpatrick for Early Worship last week. It's a great reminder of our identity in Christ.
As I reflect on this chapter I still wonder why he chose the title "Vision of Enchantment." What do you think?