Spiritual Reflection, Meditation, and Prayer

Listen: “Zen” by X Ambassadors, K. Flay, grandson

I’ve had the blessing of hanging out in the Rocky Mountains near Ouray, Colorado for a couple of weeks, which is one of the top meccas for ice climbing in America. I’m staying in a mountain hideaway which a friend of mine owns, and he offered it to me as a retreat/vacation space. (Thank you Rod!) I took him up on it, and I have used the opportunity to do several things: (1) I met up with a group of climbers from Kansas City who were in Ouray to do some ice climbing, and I did some ice climbing for the first time in my life; (2) I have done some cross country skiing at Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Top of the Pines; (3) I am working with an editor and have started writing a memoir; and (4) I am doing a six day silent meditation retreat.

I am spending most of my time reading, writing, journaling, praying, and meditating. Spending time in prayer and meditation is not a new practice for me. I have reflected back on when I first started spending time in prayer, spiritual reading, and meditation. As a young teenager I was doing sports and recreational drugs and was not very interested in formal religion. I loved nature and the outdoors. My dad forced me to go to a church youth camp after my sophomore year in high school, and I ended up having a dramatic spiritual experience. I committed my life to following Jesus at the age of sixteen, and two months later I felt called to become a pastor.

My youth pastor started mentoring me, and he encouraged me to have a morning “quiet time.” He encouraged me to get up early, set aside some time for prayer, scripture reading, and journaling. It probably fit well with my more introverted, reflective personality because I ended up developing the practice of a quiet time which stuck with me most of my life. While still in high school I would get up at 4:45am, shower, and have a quiet time from 5:15-6:15am, then catch my bus at 6:30am.

I think the only time in my life during which I didn’t have a morning quiet time was the last year of my Xanax/alcohol addiction (which was a two and a half year failed attempt to deal with my insomnia). During the last year of my addiction, I lost touch with myself, God, and my calling. In the aftermath of my meltdown, I started attending therapy sessions, twelve step recovery meetings, and mindfulness meditation sessions.

What is interesting to me: Each of these communities have encouraged some form of “quiet time,” whether reflection, reading, devotion, prayer, journaling, or meditation. The great spiritual traditions of healing, recovery, and spirituality encourage people to practice various forms of daily spiritual reflection. Socrates was on to something when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

In the twelve step tradition, Step Eleven reads: “Sought through payer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” I have heard old timers in the program encourage their sponsees to begin their day on their knees in prayer with “please” and end their day in the same fashion with “thank you.” I have heard sponsors in the program encourage people to read AA literature such as the Big Book or Daily Reflections on a daily basis, keep a journal, and develop a morning to devotion to start off their day.

In the mindfulness meditation tradition, people are encouraged to have a daily practice of meditation, maybe twenty or thirty minutes of sitting, standing, or walking in silence, either indoors or outdoors. The time of day is not important, but the daily practice is. Many meditation teachers also encourage their students to keep a journal and write down thoughts, feelings, and experiences which arise during the practice of meditation.

I have always been an early riser and have practiced my quiet time in the early morning hours, but I usually practice spontaneous prayer and meditation throughout the day. My typical morning begins with making coffee and journaling. I usually just do an emotional brain dump when I journal. I just write out what is on my mind and what I am feeling and then write out some prayers. Then I move into a time of spiritual reading for reflection and prayer such as recovery literature, meditation literature, and scripture. Finally, I usually end my quiet time with silent meditation for ten to thirty minutes.

I have encouraged people to practice a daily quiet time for years. Experiment with the time of day and the location. If you are not a morning person, find a time of day or night that works for you. Also, experiment with the location—indoors, outdoors, a coffee shop, a library—find a time and place that works for you. It’s a healthy habit which nurtures awareness and connection with self, others, and something greater.

Pliny the Elder said, “Home is where the heart is.” Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” I’ll leave you with a verse from The Radiance Sutras:

There is a place in the heart where everything meets.
Go there if you want to find me.
Mind, senses, soul, eternity, all are there.
Are you there?
Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart.
Give yourself to it with total abandon…
Once you know the way
   the nature of attention
   will call you to return, again and again

   and be saturated with knowing,
‘I belong here. I am at home here.’