Meditation: Don't build here

The members of the early Church were hugely enthusiastic about sharing the message of Jesus - and many travelled to share the good word. There is plenty of evidence that Thomas made it to India, where he seems to have been martyred. So India is a very early outpost of the new Church. There was an archway in Northern India that had this message inscribed on it.

                   This world is only a bridge. 

Cross over it, but do not build your house on it! 

We think we are builders - so few days 
to establish so much: career, relationships, 
house and legacy all to build,

immortality through our children.
So much fear that no-one 
will remember or care! 

My life here is a journey:
born with nothing - leave 
with nothing but my loves 

the lessons I have learned in
my heart. I can carry no more 
across the bridge to my home.

My path seems not straight and 
sometimes I do not see 
the milestones until I look back!

But your constant love lights my way
and the other side, my destination, 
obscured by mist, is not entirely hidden.

My God, guard my lamp always.
Walk with me. Help me walk each day 
one step on my path home to you.


Suggestions for meditations
Always begin by offering your time to God: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time when I am reaching out to you" and then a few moments reminding yourself of some of the blessings God has given you - the clear signs of God's love for you.
Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.
We all have moments when we seem adrift, when our lives seem without purpose or direction (and sometimes without hope). I love that we are on a bridge, maybe a wide bridge, maybe a Japanese garden bridge with gaps so the evil spirits cannot cross to our home. But a bridge, in the end, is quite simple: it begins on one side and has a destination on the other. We may feel lost, but the other side is always there!
If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest Matthew 6, 19-21 and/or 22-24.
You can begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.
Then spend 5, or 10, or 20 minutes with the word Journey. Every time you drift off the word, gently remind yourself and come back to it ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).
You may need a countdown clock. 

At the end thank God, and return to your day.