Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Getting real
This past week has been a series of spiritual epiphanies, starting with my prayer chaplain meeting on Monday evening. Every morning has also brought a gift from Richard Rohr’s meditations, beginning with this statement on Sunday, March 10: “When we live inside the Really Real, we live in a ‘threshold space’ between this world and the next. We learn how to live between heaven and earth, one foot in both, holding them precious together.”
This set me to thinking about the book that we are reading for our chaplain training, “Discover Your Divinity”, by Reverend Linda Martella-Whitsett. We read a chapter a month and answer questions for discussion during our meeting. This month’s questions had to do with recognizing divinity in ourselves and others. For me this means navigating the realm of the Real. While doing so, I am best served when I remember that I should keep my divinity radar sharp and alert. Another way of thinking about this is answering a critical question that a young minister asked during a service in Santa Fe. Brandon asked us to consider, “Where have you seen God this week?” As I thought about my answer, I realized that this might be the most important real spiritual question of my life.
My world, like anyone else’s, is largely defined by how my brain neurons fire in response to the sensory input that comes to me. I don’t know the scientific names for them, but there are centers in the brain that take in millions of bits of information and convert these into some understanding of what we see. Then layers of conditioning help us make sense of this. There are also theories that my brain only uses that which makes sense to it, and discards the rest. I suppose this explains why two people can see the same thing and get two very different impressions.
“People with a distorted image of self, world, or God, will be largely incapable of experiencing what is Really Real in the world. They’ll see instead what they need reality to be. That’s the opposite of true contemplatives, who have an ability to see what is, whether that reality causes weeping of rejoicing.” Richard Rohr, March 11, 2024 meditation. I think I have finally learned the lesson that my reality is sometimes based on flawed interpretations of what comes my way. In my older years I have begun to remain open, instead of landing on first impressions and staying in their little circles.
I have been a Unity prayer chaplain since 2019, when I was led to attend the training and decided on the spot that this was something soul affirming and useful. At first I was terrified that when people came to me for prayer I would freeze. That the right words would not come to me was my real fear that first year.
To be a prayer chaplain is a journey, requiring faith that an uttered prayer will serve its highest purpose. My way of praying has changed over the years into a practice of not asking God “for” anything. Instead I absorb the reality that the congregant is presenting me with, and pray that all of the divine gifts that exist in each of us will be called into action to address the prayer’s request. Whatever the reality is, I remind my companion that, as a living expression of God, there is an inner power and strength to be called upon.
At the end of this week, the last summary of Friday’s Richard Rohr meditation is this: “Living and accepting our reality will not feel very spiritual. It will feel like we are on the edges rather than dealing with the essence. But the edges of our lives – fully experienced, suffered, and enjoyed- lead us back to the center and the essence, which is love.” I would respectfully add that, in that center, we are capable of experiencing the gift of our Divinity. Now I know that my life is real and spiritual and divine all in one.