October 23
“Beloved of Good Shepherd Church,
Grace to you and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord!
I hope this doesn’t sound too pious or precious, because I really mean it. What some people are doing with artificial intelligence lately, others of us are doing with God in our daily prayer practice. Here’s what I mean. Not long ago, a friend told me that he was using A.I. in both his personal and professional life with great results. “I am helping A.I. get to know me, he said. I tell A.I. things about me, about my habits in daily life, my views on certain issues, my diet, sleep patterns, and my feelings. A.I. is learning about me and can therefore help me more and more as I deal with the problems life brings my way.” Then my friend said, “You should try it. I think it would really help you.”
Not wanting to be rude I said, “Huh, that’s very interesting.” But what I thought to myself was, “I do all of that with God everyday.” Then with a smile, I thought to myself, “I’ve found over time that God helps me navigate all of life’s hardships as our relationship of radical trust increases in depth. In fact, what’s really happening is that God is steering the ship; I’m just rowing.” What I mean is that extreme fidelity to a daily prayer practice bears marvelous fruit. A traditional teaching about prayer is that at least twice per day one should set aside time to be alone and quiet with God. Any amount of time will do. It can be two minutes or twenty minutes. The amount of time is not nearly as important as simply taking time ap[ twice per day to rest with God. It’s best to set aside time at the beginning of the day and toward the end of the day. The aim of the time spent with God is simply to open oneself to God. Picture this: how do you open your arms to give or receive a hug? Hold that posture on the inside of your body toward God. Sit still and quiet holding that inner posture of receptivity to God’s loving embrace. In this way you are presenting the entirety of yourself to God as if you are saying, "Here I am God, I want you to get to know me, and I want to get to know you.” Do that and God will do the rest. Trust me it will work, better yet, trust God.
The teaching of the Christian mystics is that if you commit to a “daily rendezvous with God” in this way, you will know what you need to know and do in all the activities of your life. Now to some people that sounds like naive, idealistic, magical thinking, but not to me. I have found it to be the deepest truth of life. God is endlessly trustworthy. God’s love won’t keep hardship at bay, it does something altogether better. God's love sustains us through all of life’s hardships, making us better, more loving, resilient, peaceful, and helpful people on the other side of every difficulty.
Use artificial intelligence to help you punctuate a sentence and find a recipe. (I know I sound like a naive simpleton!) Use a daily prayer practice to invigorate your relationship with God, so that you can drop down into the depth-dimension of your own life and discover the love that is your source and the joy that is your birthright. Now that’s living in the vibrancy and truth for which you were created.
Want to learn more about the life of prayer? Join us on Monday evenings in-person or via Zoom at the Mystics reading group or Wednesday mornings in-person or via Zoom at the Rector’s Bible Study or at any of our other formation offerings. Learn more HERE.
Remember this always - God loves you, and I love you too!
Love is all,
Hendree+