MY wife has been praying.

That’s the only explanation I can think of.

Every now and then she comes up with a bright idea – something that she’s inspired to do.

These ideas come to her when she’s following a guided meditation which involves being open to the Presence and then “waiting in the light” to see whatever the light might reveal to her.

It is when she’s waiting in the light, that an idea often comes to her.

She imagines that these ideas are instructions from God.

Well, maybe they are!

If prayer is about engaging in dialogue with God, then it not only involves bringing myself and our present predicament before God.

It also involves listening to hear whatever message God might have for me.

Or waiting in the light to see – with enlightened eyes of the heart – the Way ahead.

Or to see the plank in my own eye.

Before I try to remove the speck from my wife’s eye.

Plank?

Jesus must have been exaggerating.

A splinter, perhaps.

My wife has invited me to join her in following the guided meditation on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

It seems like a good idea, although who knows where it might lead?

I too might be given ideas or “instructed” to do something which takes me out of my comfort zone.

But that may be no bad thing.

Loving God and my neighbour isn’t just about having cushy feelings.

It’s about daring to make myself vulnerable as I seek, like Albert Schweitzer, to practise reverence for life.

Gordon Matthews

Visiting Friend in Residence

Swarthmoor Hall

Ulverston