Journal of Sacred Work

Today's meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice President for the Baptist Healing Trust.

"To the mind that is still, the world surrenders." – Taoist saying

     I met this week with a group of caregivers who serve those whose lives are centered on finding bread for today, shelter for tonight. The unmet needs represented in the room were palpable and almost incomprehensible. Stories flowed throughout the room like swift mountain streams, covering every corner, crevice, and shadow within the room. What struck me was not the power of well-intentioned social service programs so abundantly represented that day, but instead the capacity of simple presence expressed through seeing eyes and understanding hearts. From within that group of people there emerged what Parker Palmer has called a hidden wholeness, great courage, and bright vision, deep and passionate wisdom. What I experienced was a group of caregivers willing to sit quietly, patiently, though surrounded by despair and alck, listening for the answer to emerge.

     Author Wayne Muller describes the Sabbath mind as one that can be still, "a mind that can rest in delight." Muller teaches that taking a day of rest, a moment of prayer, or a time of meditation disrupts the patterns of desperation that so quickly overtake our thinking. A Sabbath mind enables within us the capacity to "see the healing that is already present in the problem." Healing, asserts Muller, makes itself known if we will but sit quietly, listen, and patiently wait. This does not mean that we will not act on behalf of others but that we understand our work to be not of creating or making but of uncovering and evoking the good that is present and ready to emerge. In Muller's words, when we seek to give care we must take care to ensure we do so with a "fragrance of tranquility."

     Our work seems to evoke more opportunity for frenetic activity than for a fragrance of tranquility, and yet our patients and fellow caregivers need most from us that sweet aroma of peace. What seems so dark at the moment eventually gives way to light if we can but rest with a Sabbath mind. Muller notes how "often in our striving for a particular result, we are not willing to be surprised by a healing we cannot imagine. Paradoxically, it is often cowardice that makes us hold on to our own small solutions; it takes infinitely more courage to surrender."

     In your place of Sacred Work, how do you find the courage to surrender to the sweet fragrance of tranquility? How will you find today a place to rest with a Sabbath mind?