- Wednesday Pause
- Posts
- Bars and Stars, Prison Places, and Expanding Love
We all know the familiar adage accredited to Dale Carnegie:
“Two men looked out from prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw stars.”
While it’s true the majority of people will never experience life behind bars, it doesn’t mean these words don’t speak straight to those places when we’ve felt stuck, trapped, or chained to circumstances—a prison we can all relate to.
But within this maxim there also exists rich wisdom that invites profound spiritual practice.
Every time we look out the window of our daily life and see the bars — the challenges, obstacles, and limitations — we tighten the grip of our shackles and constraints, and our love gets smaller.
But every time we look through the window to find the stars — opportunity, capability and possibility — the chains around our hearts, minds, and souls loosen, and our love expands.
As you sit with the prompts in today’s intermission, consider truthfully, what perspective you’re cultivating more of at this stage of your life: bars or stars?
If it’s bars, it doesn’t mean you have to fake it till you make it. False positivity isn’t the invitation. Rather, consider inviting God into your “prison place” as you create space for His love to illuminate the far recesses of your world.
Stars shine brightest in the darkest of skies.
“ … Every time we look back over a day and see a moment's joy; every time we look into our neighbour's eyes and see the love inside him, we open up a cell of sweetness for the delight of our own hearts and the world's.” —Margaret Silf [1]
—With Joy
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Pause for Thought
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”
Pause for Practice
Read the following passage of scripture and spend time deeply meditating on what might have been Jesus’ thoughts and feelings in this scene. Sit with him here and let this time of meditation speak to you as you draw closer to his heart during such a difficult moment of his life.
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” —Matthew 26:36-46, NIV
Pause for Examination
Where is the worst area of pain in your life at present? Let it come into your awareness in prayer. Lay every feeling before God without fear. This is your Gethsemane. Ask the Lord to stay with you and to watch and pray with you. Ask him to draw your pain into his own.
[1] Inner Compass by Margaret Silf, p. 252-253.
[2] The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.
[3] Inner Compass by Margaret Silf, p. 242.
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To explore free artwork for the practice of “Visio Divina—The Sacred Art of Seeing,” visit our library » » previous month’s offerings.
P.S. Regardless of what you’ve got going on and what life is throwing your way, carve out time today for the “spiritual” practice (😂) of watching these little guys. You won’t regret it 😉.