“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.” (Mt. 2:10-11, ESV)
When was the last time you rejoiced exceedingly with great joy? When was the last time you rejoiced exceedingly with great joy simply because you were in the presence of the Lord? These two questions made me realize something today. They made me realize that my prayers have become far too transactional. I rush into God’s presence, listen for a few minutes, and then start asking God to intervene in the lives of the people and in the familiar places that are near and dear to me. Then I run off into the world, trying to help those things come to into being.
But I’ve been missing something
lately. I have not been making space and
time for contemplation and ecstasy. I
have not been giving God, or myself, room for encounter. And it is intimate encounter with God that
truly transforms us. It is contemplation
and ecstasy that give us the spiritual fuel to reveal the heart of God to this
broken and hurting world. In the words
of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “It is by prayer that the soul draws directly
from the heart of God the graces that the active life must distribute.” Contemplation and ecstasy are integral to life
of genuine transformation and impact.
We need to make time and space to dance
with him, to listen to him, to laugh with him.
We need to sit quietly with him, to sing and to be sung to, to hold and
be held, to kiss and be kissed. Those
are the encounters that give our lives the intimacy and the power to help others
find that tender and intimate and transforming space with him as well. When was the last time you just sat still and
let him love you? After all, “We love
because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
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