The Art of Spiritual Practice

There is a line in Psalm 68:27 where Benjamin leads a procession into the temple with a “joyful mind.”  In his book, the Naked Now, Richard Rohr suggests some attributes of a joyful mind that I found interesting: Here’s a sampling of what that joyful mind might be:

When your mind does not need to compare yourself with others. When your mind follows the intelligent lead of your heart. When you can live in contentment with what is. When your mind doesn’t “brood over injuries.” When your mind can find truth on both sides. When your mind can forgive and actually forget. When your mind can admit it was wrong and change. When you don’t need to worry or complain to get motivated. When your mind can find God in all things. (p. 179-180)

As I read these, I feel a humility that I can’t try to make my mind be joyful like this. It seems impossible. Yet I feel the Holy Spirit moving in me as I sit in that humility. I yearn for a mind that knows the joy God wants for me and I see how my mind gets in the way.

A spiritual practice? Choose one of these attributes of a joyful mind and sit with it. Sense what that would be like.  Ask God that you be changed according to God’s will in this. There is an old saying in spiritual direction: “What you most deeply desire is what God most deeply desires.”

Pastor Marcia Wakeland is a retired ELCA pastor, a spiritual director and a listening advocate. She is interested in the actual experience of having faith and how that is lived out. She can be reached at mwakeland@gmail.com for comments or more questions Her ongoing blog of living out spiritual practices is listeninglife.live.