The Soul’s Quiet Contemplation

Whether poised amid harmony or barrelled with lament,

The soul’s wistful journey hums along content,

Proof of which is given, the moment we lower the heat,

Such ‘defeat’ is seen as something that can’t be beat.

Sojourn to life is made – and paradoxically so,

Times taken out are the ones in which we’ll grow,

Moves the purpose, assuaged, onto God’s hearty stead,

Better are we now, certainly in the head.

But the common infiltration happens in the heart,

That’s the contemplative part from which many of us have to start,

For hearts feel most, the emptiness of life,

That evidence of times when we’ve received for ourselves, strife.

Basking in the bath of the steamy Holy Spirit,

Assigns the life disposed and God’s along to cheer it,

For assignment’s a thing that meditatively must,

Come home to the self, at will, preventing signs of rust.

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The process toward spiritual rust is threateningly present today, as always. It’s what happens if we neglect the contemplative process. This assumes that knowing ourselves is then knowing God and vice versa.

As we bask in the bath — which is the fully vested Presence of the Lord, by manifestation of the Holy Spirit — we gain issuance of the Divine placement of our lives and the direction for heading.

This is confirmation or redirection — sometimes both at the same time.

A Process of Spiritual Contemplation

Can there possibly be a more important activity for life than connecting with God?

With certainty we can know this: everything we do we should do for the glory of the Lord. That’s both primary and achievable — from wherever we are.

Time taken to continually plug-in with God — a cherished human need — is rewarded. Through both head and heart there is a bond established with the inner self that’s otherwise left untapped.

Head – Heart – Holy

There are many ways of engaging in spiritual reflection. As uniquely made we are, so too are we fitted individually with our grasp on God. No one size fits all.

But we each think, feel and — on moral and wisdom concepts — we decide.

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First, we sit, stand or lay still — asking God to quiet the mind; the heart already quelled.

Second, we enjoy this moment of sheer nothingness. Oh what power enlivens the moment; God is known this hushed instant.

Third, we are sprung home to a thought. God’s placed it there, amid the silence. We ponder it in continued silence, allowing our spirit to meander with it.

Fourth, the level of emotion enjoins. The heart considers the meaning of the matter, but without external influence. This God-indwelled heart is pure as driven snow, so we allow the heart to adjudicate as it will.

Fifth, when we’re ready — and not before time — we introduce into the mix the biblical set of God’s teaching. Extracted for final meaning is the conformed thought; a deduction produced with holy Presence and the assurance of reverence.

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The first stanza of the poem is important. Peace is ever-present, for peace is God. This is a thing known when all the noise is pushed right away; when we just be.

This is a thing many will consider defeat; but nothing has victory anything like it. The soul’s quiet contemplation is matched to the eternal realm. Nothing can compete. But equally, nothing and nobody can understand it.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.