Close your eyes gently or cast your eyes down. Take a deep breath in, and hold it a second, now exhale into an imaginary balloon, sending your tensions into that balloon. Hold the end, as you take another deep breath in, hold, and then exhale your troubles into the balloon again. We will continue doing this for several breaths. The balloon is big, and can take all your troubles into it. So this time, breathe in the breath of God, and hold it in your heart. Exhale more troubles, so you make space for God’s breath. Another breath in, breathing light and love into your heart, and slowly exhale into the balloon, your sad memories, letting them go into the balloon. In silence, do this three more times, trapping what no longer serves you into the balloon.
Hold onto the end of your balloon. Notice the size of your balloon – this is how much you were holding, and how much you have let go, out of your body. Notice the tension, bursting the sides of the balloon. Notice the color. The shape. And now, lift it up, and let it go – notice how it makes that raspberry sound as it zooms into the sky, dispersing and evaporating your troubles. Come back now, into the room. One more centering breath, deep inhale, deep slow exhale with a sigh. Be here now.
The second step of the 12 Steps is “We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” In the past 5 minutes, we turned toward this power we call God, and let go of our troubles. We came to find a sanity that begins with the breath that we were given by the Holy Spirit, by remembering where life comes from. There is sanity in the simple act of paying attention to our breath, rather than uncontrollable forces outside ourselves.
Listen now to a poem written by St. Teresa of Avila.
Let Nothing Frighten You. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing upset you. Everything changes. God alone is unchanging. With patience all things are possible. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone is enough.
What did you hear when I read this? Write that down. Let me read it again, and this time, notice if there is a change, or if you hear something different.
And now for the third time. Let it land. Let go of any need to make it mean something specific. Just listen, let the rest go.
Take a few seconds and write down a word or phrase or image that struck you from the poem.
Next, we will do the same thing with Psalm 23, the translation from the Message. Just listen to it while I read it three times. Notice what you notice.
Psalm 23
The Message
23 1-3 God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I’m not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.
Next is a poem is by Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Our final reading is Ephesians 3:14-20, written by the apostle Paul
14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
So let me ask you, do you feel more sane? Can you feel the Light and the Love of the Infinite One within you and all around you? Can you feel the magic? This, my dear friends, is sanity. This is peace. This is what we were created for, in my humble opinion: to find God. Not only on Sundays, not only in church, not out there somewhere, but in here, in our own hearts. We can use breath to find God. We can listen to scriptures and poems to find God. All we need to do is to Let Go and Let God.
Now let’s take a moment to write down what you heard, what you imagined, what you learned.
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