The Centering Prayer group that I’m attending is opening lots of interesting avenues of thought and prayer in me. In addition to providing the discipline I need to show up for this type of prayer more frequently, I’m also reflecting on the experience of prayer, which I usually don’t do. Reflecting on something is not part of the prayer itself, but there is still much to be learned from noticing what does, and does not happen, in prayer.
Recently my reflections took the form of a poem. I’ve also been spending time with the Psalms, and Psalm 136 came to mind because of its repetition. Every other line of this psalm speaks of God’s mercy enduring forever. It’s the underlying theme of the psalm, and I found myself thinking of it as a recurrent reminder of God’s presence, beneath and within everything that happens. In “good” times and “bad” (all open to interpretation, of course!), God is there.
And then…I pondered the Centering Prayer instruction, when we are distracted or distressed, to “ever so gently return to your sacred word.” Putting it in today’s language, sitting at my computer, I found myself thinking of toggling back and forth between one thing and another, repeatedly returning to God when we wander away…and the poem was born.
May it inspire your own reflection on prayer and its role in your life.
Toggle Back to God
Websites weave animosity
Toggle back to God
Pundits peddle profanity
Toggle back to God
Television illuminates adversity
Toggle back to God
Sales pitches scream of scarcity
Toggle back to God
Formless fields of sunlight
Toggle back to God
Lake reflecting moon bright
Toggle back to God
Hand reached out to stop fight
Toggle back to God
Patience paid to set right
Toggle back to God
Fierce familial love fest
Toggle back to God
Springtime weave of bird nest
Toggle back to God
Striving now to do best
Toggle back to God
In contentment now rest
Toggle back to God
© 2016 Shirin McArthur
Wow, Shirin! That poem! By the end of it I was thinking of how CLOSE God is to us in the midst of it all at any given moment.
I’m so glad the poem spoke so clearly to you! Thank you for sharing your experience with it.