So, Lent is over and Easter happened and He is risen yay okay. But now what?
In the traditional Church calendar, Easter is not just one day. It is a season that lasts from Easter Sunday until the Pentecost. This year, that means Easter lasts until May 15th.
Seven week party! He’s alive! Matt Maher’s “Christ is Risen” on repeat!
Towards the end of Lent I began thinking about what the next step would be in this journey God is leading me. I prayed about it a little bit, but mostly just thought about what seemed like the logical progression. Classic, right? Realistically though, I knew that blogging daily would not be a sustainable practice (you all know I barely made it through Lent, and that’s only 40 days of the year). So I began reflecting on the things God had taught me throughout Lent.
One thing that stuck out to me is how bad I am at just being in the moment. I constantly have at least 5 things going on in my head at once, and at least one of them is somewhat anxiety-inducing. I have a hard time quieting my thoughts and focusing, unless I am writing. But as we established earlier, I can’t always be writing, so something else must be done.
Late last week, I listened to the Liturgist podcast on meditation (listen here: http://www.theliturgists.com/podcast/2015/2/23/episode-14-meditation). Now, I’ve already told you I constantly have several things on my mind at once. Meditation is not something I enjoy, nor is it something I am good at. I can make it about 30 seconds before my mind wanders away, and then suddenly I am creating a mental to-do list. This is also really true for prayer- I have to journal my prayers, or listen to worship songs whose lyrics reflect the prayer I have in my heart. And this is extremely true for yoga. I can’t even keep a straight face during that. I cannot quiet my mind and engage with the Spirit, or follow the breath as it goes through my lungs and spreads to my toes. Still not convinced that is possible.
Nevertheless, my Lenten blogging journey had increased my desire to know God and learn more about Him in my life. And what better way to try new things with a fresh start than during Easter?
Through the cross, Jesus sheds His earthly self (and our worldly beings) and bursts forth as more than Jesus of Nazareth- He is Jesus the Christ, the Lord. And personally, that sounds really appealing- to shed the weight and worries of the world and be reformed in God. Yes please. Sign me up for the less-anxiety course.
Of course this is going to be another long road. Usually if I try to get back into meditating, it lasts about 3 days before I give up. I feel silly doing it, and it always seemed like I couldn’t get it right, so I decided it must not be for me. But in the podcast, Science Mike says something along the lines of, “There is no wrong way to meditate.” And he encouraged that if you have a lot of thoughts drifting and you can’t seem to silence your mind- just let them come, and then let them go. This was really huge for me, for some reason. I could never get past the mental block of “I will never clear my mind.” And how do you “let go” of a thought?? Once it’s there, it’s there, right?
But I had never considered the fact that you might have to literally train your mind to be able to do this. Mike compares it to training for a race (speaking my language here): you have to work your way up to that desired distance.
So in light of that, I am attempting to spend this Easter season learning how to meditate, and with that, how to be in the moment and be more fully present with God. We started off strong with 5 minutes this morning, listening to the soothing sounds of a lawn mower outside my window.
As an end note, I do plan to keep blogging (thank you to everyone who asked me- you make me feel like a celebrity), but probably not every day. That’s a lot of words. Here we go!