Meditation: Nothing worthwhile is easy, 2 - Struggle to Grow

"You will look, but not perceive" 
Isaiah 6:9 and Mark 4:12

God did not make us for an easy life.
We are born in pain and limited by our senses, 
subject to scarcity and disease and age,
made to learn most effectively by hard experience!

God did not make us for an easy life;
allowed us a mind able to think, 
but a mind almost entirely subject to our 
appetites and feelings and fears and hormones.

God did not make us for an easy life.
Born separate from our God: we are in time -  
God is not. We live a mainly physical life guided 
by parables we are not ready to understand.

God did not make us for an easy life, but gave us 
prayer and meditation and miracles and community, 
saints and moments of insight hinting at answers
so we will watch for the glow on the horizon.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation, try Mark 4: 9-13

    After the parable he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that

‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”  (see yesterday's Meditation on Isaiah 6: 9-13)

And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.         

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word STRUGGLE or PERSIST.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("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.