Tuesday, First Week of Lent

Thoughts Need Not Cut Us Off From God

In "My Stroke of Insight" Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor tells about experiencing a sudden brain aneurysm, and the long road back to her "new" life.  She describes what it was like when all of her mind (essentially) shut down.  She was no longer capable of thinking thoughts.  At one point she says it was the closest she could come to sheer, unobstructed "bliss".  There was a peace, and a space that was totally full, even though she had absolutely no ability to use language or thought in ways considered "normal."
Gradually she regained her ability to think and speak.  She tells how this "bliss" provided great peace and wholeness even though it was during a time when her thoughts were buried or eliminated by the stroke, initially, and subsequently by her coma.

This absence of thinking is one way to describe mindfulness. that is, being totally aware of what is going one.  Mindfulness allows us to experience what is happening simply as it is, without judgement or analysis.  We may think thoughts, but as we think them we are also participating in a conversation with God.

Try this:  As you think thoughts, imagine that God is eavesdropping upon and participating in the words and mental patterns.  How does that shift the experience of thinking?  Since God knows your thoughts before you think them, how does that relieve you from the effort of trying to stop thinking?

Prayer:  O Holy Spirit, convert my never-ending flow of thoughts into prayer.