Meditation # 1 (From the Vault-sort of)

As I have said, I will try later in the week to post a ‘From the Vault’ item from older writings I did years ago. I may have released it in some fashion somewhere, but only to a small audience, or only myself. This one is from a group of writings I called simply ‘Meditations’. I did not do many–but this one I liked, and I felt it was time to release it. I do feel it needed some touch-up, like that table you got at the garage sale that you want to paint a different color. (Yes, I did refresh the picture for these posts too.) Enjoy-

Meditations # 1

The Invitation

“Come Lord Jesus!” the Bible ends it’s second to last verse with that phrase in Revelation. If we are a Bible reader, we may then close the book, and go about our day. But I think there is great power and insight in that phrase. I do not think it is just a closing word, but an attitude, and a prayer. It’s a way to be. It is an invitation.

I always thought that John, one of Jesus’s Apostles, and the author of said Revelation, was saying: “Hurry up Jesus, and make all this stuff I saw come to pass!” (John had seen many crazy visions in Revelation, the last book of the Bible.) Maybe John was saying, “I want to get to this Cataclysmic End,” but maybe he meant this: “Come Lord Jesus into my life now.” (And if ‘Jesus’ is not your practice, consider some other Spiritual Word.) In Christian practice, we believe John knew Jesus, and walked and talked with him, and saw him risen from the dead. I believe that John was inviting this risen, living Jesus into his situation, into his own daily life.

I encourage you to invite God into your situation, to invite Him/Her to come into this moment. This moment you are reading this. This moment. Consider inviting God/Spirit again and again to be a part of your Life-Path. Indeed, invite God to show you His/Her Presence, to guide you, and lead your steps.

May I suggest that we should pray this prayer often. Let it be a mantra, if you will: “Come, Lord Jesus”, when we’re scared or uncertain. “Come, Lord Jesus” when we face a problem. “Come, Lord Jesus” into our joy, on and on and on. “Come, Spirit. Come, Lord, I invite you into my now.”

The Greek word for ‘come’ in that ending verse of Revelation, among many uses and meanings, includes the notion of accompanying, and bringing, as in bringing something along. How many situations do we find ourselves in, wherein we should have let Jesus/Spirit accompany us, and brought Him along? Did we go-it-alone, or ASK God for some direction?

In truth, God/Spirit was there all along, but we so often had no openness, no lightness, and did not align ourselves with Him, or acknowledge Him. We soon found ourselves in a mess, even it was just a mess in our hearts! Aren’t you tired of inter-personal messes, churned-up minds and hearts? I am.

So, pray this and pray this often,

“Come, Lord Jesus, Come, Lord Jesus, Come Lord Jesus!”

I have recently added: “May I come along with you, my Lord and my God”. I am repurposing another Apostle’s confession, Thomas, upon seeing Jesus risen a week after Easter. (John 20:28)

Whatever your Spiritual Practice, I hope you will find that God is always present. I know praying some mantra-prayer will not fix everything, but it will start aligning your heart, and as the Big Book of AA says: “See to it that your relationship with (God) is right, and great events will come to pass, for you and countless others.”

May you, like the Jewish Patriach Jacob, say of God: “You were here all along, and I did not know it!” (Gen 28:16)

Be Open. Be Light. God will fill the spaces you make. Ask Him to.

-Eric, The Wordsmith

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