I have the pleasure of convening and coordinating a group focused on contemplative spirituality. It has a range of ages and theological persuasions. I am grateful for that, since I learn best from those who don’t think exactly the way I do. Someone with a different perspective makes me think more carefully and figure out how to articulate what often are incoherent thoughts.
The group was considering a couple short passages from one of my all-time favorite books by Quaker author, Thomas Kelly. The book is A Testament of Devotion, originally published in 1948. It comes out of Kelly’s experience of spending some time in Germany in the 1930s and watching the rise of Hitler and, then, the horrors of WW II. Although it originally delivered as a series of lectures to Quakers in the Philadelphia area, it nevertheless speaks to women and men of all spiritual stripes---and perhaps no stripes at all. I was particularly taken by what my group gave focus, namely, silence and stillness.
Kelly begins with these wonderful words. “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return.” (1) I have read those words so many times, they are committed to memory. I understand Kelly to be affirming that our encounter and experience with God is internal. I love the language of sanctuary. I believe he is intentionally contrasting that internal sanctuary with the more normal understanding of sanctuary as the church worship space. In liturgical traditions the sanctuary is the place of the holy---the place where we meet and experience the Holy.
I like Kelly assuring us, we don’t have to be in church or even in a church building to meet and greet God. It could happen any time and any place. And then he offers this contrast to time. He advises us that “Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself.” At this inner sanctuary we are able to encounter the Holy One. There in a moment of time we can discover the Eternal One. Again, notice how he details the presence and power of the Eternal.
Eternity presses upon our time-torn lives. In a profound way, that phrase speaks to me. I know all-too-well what a time-torn life feels like. Have you also felt incredibly tired or frazzled? Folks talk about being at their wits end! Kelly offers a palpable alternative. Instead of being frazzled, we can be warmed with intimations of an astounding destiny. We can be assured and find assurance that we are homeward bound. Those who feel lost will be found. Those who feel alienated will be welcomed home.
Kelly and Quakers like to talk about this home as our Center. If we can find that Center and begin to live from that Center, we will be aware of those intimations of astounding destiny. I like how Kelly talks about this Center persuading us. It is as if that deep sanctuary within lures and beckons us to come. God is invitational. We are invited and desired. Who does not want to be wanted!
Thomas Kelly invites us to yield. “Yielding to these persuasions…is the beginning of true life.” I very much want a true life. Who wants to live a lie? True life is found at the Center. I am sadly aware of how often we are looking for a true life somewhere “out there.” Rather it is “in here.” As Kelly puts it, “It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us.”
Once we know what it is to find that Center, then we can begin to learn to live from that Center. We will live a centered life, rather than the frazzled, wacky, disintegrated way so many in our society are living. It becomes a simpler life---a “singleness of eye, as Kelly puts it. (46) Here we will know that “the breath and stillness of Eternity are heavy upon us and we are wholly yielded to Him…” I love how Kelly promises, “We are called beyond strain, to peace and power and joy and love and thorough abandonment of self.” This string of descriptions of life in the Spirit is precisely what I want---peace, power, joy, love, etc.
All this does not mean we can’t be fully involved with life. It is not a call to live like a monk. We can be active and busy. But we can be still. I understand stillness to be centered. Much movement can happen. We can go with the flow. But we can be centered and still. Life does not have to be whimsical, flappable and tumultuous.
It will take some attention to know and come to be in that Center. It will require some intentionality to learn to live from that Center. One good way we will know whether we are centered is whether we feel still. I think of the biblical passage where God says to “be still and know that I am God.” Finally, it will take some practice---some discipline. Intention, attention and discipline.
Finding and living in this stillness is worth it. Join me as I work on it.
Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber. I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s. It was already a famous book by then. I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it. It has been a while since I looked at the book. Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks? I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece. I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation. I wish more people read him and took him seriously. Brooks’ article focused on the 2016 contentious election. He provocatively suggests, “Read Buber, Not the Polls!” I think Brooks puts
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