A friend of mine is Muslim. She's amazing not only is she fun, she's busy doing and contributing in ways most people only talk about adding significance and substance to the world. She's always covered, head to toe even on the days when the temperature is pushing 100 degrees. Not once have I heard her comment or complain when the rest of us are griping about the heat we claim we love.
I'm always amazed at the numbers of male friends that she has in spite of her being covered and their seeming devotion to her. She's that woman who can literally just look over her shoulder and know someone is standing in wait to assist her. Her temper is lightening fast but so too is her smile.
While I start my day seated in meditation and prayer rarely do I intentionally break away from something to go pray. I do turn consciously in my mind to ask for guidance, send blessings and I stay in a constant state of listening that I'll call being open to hear the Voice of God but rarely does it require me to physically break away.
12 years ago I hosted an exchange professional from Ghana. He is Catholic and highly ritualized in his worship. When he first came to live in my home he was eager to join me in my morning devotion time. While we worship under differently denominations, I know there is only one power, one presence that some of us call God. It matters little to me what name you use, what sex you think She is I choose not to get caught up in those trivial details. I am and have always been unconditionally open to however God shows up.
A few weeks into his 3 month stay I started to get uncomfortable with his "joining" me in prayer. Praying together seemed to create an intimate bond with him and I had no intention of being intimately connected. I know that sounds strange, this man was afterall living in my house but in my mind he was a house guest not a house mate. This praying stuff was getting us too close for comfort.
He seemed both shocked and slightly offended when I told he we could no longer pray together. I am a single woman and had no frame of reference for the intimacy that seemed to grow out of that hour, it had to end.
This memory was triggered a few days ago when my friend needed to make Salat. I asked to stay and be apart of the prayer when her and one of her Muslim brothers made prayer.
Jesus said with two or more are gathered in my name there am I also. When we started to pray I felt that all too familiar shift that seems to open up a vortex of energy sometimes when I pray in a group. My prayer time is good when I'm alone but when I join with others I can feel the amplification of that joined intention. That energized pregnancy that seems to open up when the veil has been lifted. In that moment I understood that intimacy I felt many years before with my house guest and I also understood the relationship my friend has with the men she prays with.
In that small moment of time I understood and developed a new respect for the ritual. I felt envious of the intimacy and potential it carried. While I pray often with others it's not 5 times a day and asking someone to come join me in prayer seems awkward, hookey and in some cases manipulative. Many of us try to create some elaborate prayer that address all our perceived needs and will stir some type of emotion. While emotions seem to infuse our prayers with power as I listened to them pray I had no clue what was being said. In spite of that and maybe because of it the devotion of it touched me so deeply, so sweetly that I am forever changed.
I am honored to be on my path, one that is open to God however God shows up. By keeping an open mind I hear deep within my own soul whenever and wherever God chooses to speak to and through me.
Peace & Blessings 2u!
~Sandra
No comments:
Post a Comment