An Inner Voice
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Blog Post #56
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, the independent TEDx brings people together to share a TED-like experience. Tracey Lind, a Dean at Trinity Cathedral and an Episcopalian minister, presented a TEDx talk in 2014 and her message is summarized below.
Prayer writers, meditators, and others on a path to know God will find the
4-Step sequence that Tracey Lind mentions very familiar!
How I Met God in a McDonald’s
Tracey Lind believes in the inner voice of holy wisdom that resides in each one of us. She herself experienced this voice on a cold January afternoon in a McDonald's. She was raised in an interfaith family by a father who was a reformed Jew and a mother who was a skeptical Protestant, which she stated was “a rich blend of both traditions with a healthy dose of secularism.” On Saturdays she went to temple, on Sundays she went to church. Tracey knew she wanted to be a religious leader but found “it hard to reconcile the contradictions of her mixed religious identity.” Plus, her first semester in seminary was a “prolong interrogation of God: Who are you? Do You exist? How do I know?” that left her, “utterly exhausted.” As she explained:
“I found myself walking down the street asking God to let me go and to let me get on with my life. And that's when it happened: A voice called out to me from within me, saying, ‘I am not going to let go of you.’
”I realized I better pay attention… so I sat down in a McDonald's… and started writing out the most remarkable and memorable conversation that I've ever had with anybody in my entire life…the voice called me by name, identified itself as God, confronted me with my own issues and my own private wounds, contradicted my newly articulated seminary theology, answered a lot of my questions and reassured me when I protested.
“I asked, so if you're inside of me, then how can you be God? And the voice said: ‘What is so special about Me is that I am inside of each and every person, and if everyone would hear My voice and follow it, then My realm on earth would come.’
“I didn't know if I was talking with God, but I did know that if there was a God, I wasn't going to get a clearer message…if you hear His voice and follow it, your life would be enriched, your imagination would be set free, your creativity would flourish, and this fragile and endangered world would be a better and a safer place to live.
“So you might be wondering, how can you hear this voice? Well, think of it as a simple
4-Step process:
1…Ask As in any conversation, somebody has to begin it, and it might as well be you. My experience is that the voice is really very gracious...
2…Wait Once you ask a question, you have to wait for an answer…the voice might take Its time…be patient and persistent. It might come in unexpected ways, through a conversation or a dream or even silence.
3…Listen In order to hear the voice, you have to develop a habit of listening…Zen masters call it mindfulness, contemplatives speak of it as meditation, mystics call it contemplation…You can't hear the voice without listening…you have to silence all of the other noise.
4…Receive A willingness to accept the gift... think of it as holy wisdom…that can only be actualized by receptivity.
“But it's also a gift that has to be tested to ensure that it's calling you to build up and not destroy, to love and not hate, to do good and to resist evil in the world, and to respect the dignity of every human being and all of the rest of creation.
”I believe that the voice whom we call by many names and hear in many languages and meet in many places, including McDonald’s, lives inside of each and every one of us. And if we all hear and follow it, then the peace that we long for will come and the world will be made whole.”
Tracey Lind’s entire talk can be accessed here:
How I met God in a McDonald’s | Tracey Lind | TEDxClevelandStateUniversity - YouTube
Peace Affirming Prayer
Peace fills my mind and flows through all my thoughts.
Peace fills my heart and flows through all my love.
Peace fills my soul and goodwill flows to all.
Peace fills my being and permeates all my activities.
Peace within. Peace without. Peace everywhere.
Peace in my mind. Peace in my heart. Peace in my soul.
Peace in me. Peace in my home. Peace in my country. Peace in my world.
Peace everywhere.
Amen.
Ukrainian folklore characterizes pysanky as a symbolic, talismanic writing that invokes a higher Universal Power for help, while believing with faithful certainty that It will. The contemporary version of this characterization is a paper-and-pen journaling practice called prayer writing that develops a personal relationship with God.
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