|
Wisdom Words
All of us ... have moods in which the vision of God grows dim. Our life is not built on a level so that we can maintain a constant elevation of spirit.
A person who surrenders to these variable moods is doomed to inefficiency. That man or woman is like a ship that drifts as the tides run and winds blow, and does not hold its course through them and in spite of them.
The heights of fellowship with God are not often reached ... but this does not mean the value of prayer is only thus occasional.
Moods are the clouds in the spiritual skies. A person must not overemphasize their importance. Surely the person should not on account of them cease to trust the God who is temporarily obscured by them.
*Harry Emerson Fosdick. "The Problem of Moods." 1915. The Contemporaries Meet the Classics on Prayer. Compiled by Leonard Allen. Inclusive Adaptation for OneLife.
Comments
Contemplation embraces all moods of life and of prayer, for moods of life and prayer are of one Spirit. Prayerful Openness in Love, which is contemplation, habituates us to relish heights of joy and embrace depths of boredom.
Indeed, boredom, and all so-called negative emotions, are as fully the expression of the Word as so-called positive emotions. We call negative emotions negative for they are uncomfortable to us. We name positive emotions positive for they are comfortable to us.
Contemplatives live, in increasing embrace, Love transcending and encompassing dualities of mood in a unity of Devotion. We discover "descending" moods we once resisted in prayer become welcome havens from the intensity of "elevating" moods.
A person the Spirit has not led to the oneness in spiritual prayer of so-called opposites of ascent and descent cannot begin to fathom the beauty of the simplicity of contentment I now speak of.
However, the contemplative grows to look forward to times alone with the Alone, and just being, and thinks nothing of what mood she shall experience. She grows to enjoy Presence pervading the environment of changing moods. Presence consecrates the mood as holy.
I cannot tell you, "Go detach from reliance on moods in prayer." That would be useless. I can tell you, "Go, mature in Loving Wakefulness to God, and you will grow to relish the ascents and descents of mood in prayer and, as well, life." You will, yes, grow to see Light in all emotional states. That does not come to most of us but by a disciplined life of loving detachment in prayer and life over many years.
Often a mood of descent is simply, to speak in personification, waiting for you to love it, to accept it, to welcome it. Once you do say "Yes" to it, it flowers into a mood of elevation. By treating the mood with criticism, as though it is wrong and is being invasive, that intensifies and solidifies its presence.
Suggested Reflection
Have you discerned a growth in being detached from reliance on moods in prayer? If so, explain. If not, what might you begin doing to grow in such loving detachment?
What do you think Fosdick means by the following: Moods are the clouds in the spiritual skies?
*Brian K. Wilcox is Pastor of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
|
