“It does not matter what you believe ‘about’ resurrection. What matters is that you ‘be’ resurrection.”
Spending this week in an adult version tree house, eye to eye with the peaks of towering pine and rocky mountains, for the most part the outward and visible evidence of who I think I am is left behind, if not in Arizona then certainly in my car, a one hundred yard 75 degree climb from the cabin across slippery pine needles and wild flowers. Filthy fingernails, bedraggled hair, stained shirt and muddy boots belie the image of this woman primped in a pristine black suit crowned with a stiff clerical collar, nails, hair and shoes properly polished.
Warmed in a spot of sunlight I wonder, what keeps me from being comfortable in my naked beingness? What makes me think that I want or need something more than I have or I am? Perhaps that is the wrinkle. I think I should want something more.
Yesterday while doing the James Finley walking meditation - inhale “God breathing in,” exhale, “God breathing out,” repeat - while hiking to 13 thousand feet in the Indian Peak Wilderness, this question rose from within. “Well God, if you are breathing me (this is what Richard Rohr refers to as mutual indwelling) perhaps you will ‘talk’ with me? Tell me, what am I supposed to believe about Jesus?” Strange as this sounds and bowing to the fact that I was hiking above 12 thousand feet and oxygen was in short supply, it was as if someone was walking with me, communicating directly without words.
“It does not matter what you believe ‘about’ resurrection. What matters is that you ‘be’ resurrection.” Whoa. That snared my feet and stopped my breath. I did not see that coming! ““Be” resurrection? Me? What does that look like?” And I heard, “Living prayer.” “What?”
“Right now you are praying while puffing your way to the top of this mountain. As you pray you are a living, breathing revelation of divine presence. Your prayer is the communion of humanity and divinity making whatever is happening sacred, a sacrament. This is how at every turn of the trail you see beauty, how every breath is laced with glittering perfume, how you experience deep peace even as you labor to climb this mountain. So, ‘be’ resurrection. Be the communion of humanity and divinity much as was Jesus by simply receiving each moment as it presents itself (breathing in) and responding precisely as needed in every circumstance (breathing out). There is no need for you to look for something more to do or deal with. Just ‘be’ resurrection.”
“Be” resurrection by dying to the idea that I should want or do or be something more. This is new and renewed life. Being now. With that I feel breath enter every cell and space of my being. The sun is warm on my feet. Silence is so thick it sings. All is well, I am well.
Mojo and Caribou Cabin Tree House
James Finley on Grounding in God Listen to 6 minutes of James Finley describing prayer practices.
