Obscured Doors of the Soul

It seems that the door of the soul usually remains closed in our culture. It stands blocked by overwhelming distractions, too heavy to move on our own, cut off from the world around us.

Occasionally, we may temporarily move the barriers, crack the door open and glance at the landscape that lies outside of the soul. We feel as if we open ourselves to others, but in reality we only play dress-up or wear a mask of some sort.     

Many of is ignore the barricades completely, going about life as usual. Sometimes we are not even aware that the soul remains hindered. In fact, some of us even add more barriers of our own, including spiritual locks and deadbolts.   


It is only through the light of Christ, as He invades our soul, unhindered and free to move by His Spirit that the door not only opens, but is blown from it's hinges, leaving an unobscured passage for the light to invade.

That light reveals our soul for what it truly is. It is then that we not only become naked to ourselves, but lay completely vulnerable to others as well.

Only then can we be completely authentic, free to love and be loved.

Free to forgive and be forgiven.

Free to be with one another. 

Free to be as Christ.      

A Prayer

Lord, make clear that which remains cloudy.
  Make straight things what seem skewed;
  Bring focus to that which is distorted;
  Create assurance where all seems uncertain;
  Direct that which is unmapped;
  Make clarity in realms of confusion;
  Make targeted things that appear aimless;
  Decide what is postponed;
  Fill what is empty;
  Complete what has been left undone;
  See what is hidden;
  Speak where there is silence;
  Hear where deafness prevails;
  Be where you are not.

Open the doors of my heart and soul, Lord
  to see You as You are.
Let these prayers rise to You and be Your will,
  as my will is for You to be.

Amen

 
 

Essential Prayer

When we shed all that does not matter in life, we discover that prayer is much more simple than we realize.

When we fully enter into prayer, without hindrance, distraction or selfish agendas, we find Christ at the center of all we are.

There is only Christ. Nothing else adds to our existence and nothing subtracts from it.

All is Christ and Christ is within all.

All that exists, exists through Christ.

All is created through Christ. Every thought. Every breath. Each step that follows the next is through Christ.

Christ is all.

When we reach this point of realization, our prayers become quite simple, natural and organically oriented toward God alone.

For when prayers that otherwise might have been offered with selfish intention find their origin in Christ, the center, we find that they come not from us, but Christ.

Our prayers become His intentions and not ours.

Our will is His will.

Our thoughts are His thoughts.

Our mind is His mind.

Christ s the center of our existence.

Nothing else matters.

Christ in us.

We in Christ.