HALLELUJAH
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; / praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; / praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound; / praise him with lute and harp! / Praise him with tambourine and dance; / praise him with strings and pipe! / Praise him with clanging cymbals; / praise him with loud clanging cymbals! / Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord! —Psalm 150
Do you ever wonder where everything is going—your life, your community, the world? After the contractions, false starts, kicking and screaming, tears from grieving and the the inner sadness your soul feels and tends to carry from time to time. Do ever wonder if the role you are playing is of any value? — especially now. And if you’ve done some deep spiritual excavation, if you are like me, you might be feeling a bit disillusioned.
Well, I have been thinking what the heck, what am I doing here? When I spend time in an introspective state and dare to ask “what am I doing here? I get a response something like this: “yes and keep going.” Cryptic and hopeful?
Did I use the word hope? Someone I hold in high regard suggested that the virtue of hope is like a muscle that needs to be worked. As a dancer, that is a concept I can wrap my brain around. I can relate to the language of muscles flexing and lengthening. Muscles need to be worked to build strength and to sustain ongoing mobility. Training them to move with ease and respond appropriately and in harmony with other muscles is a skill and takes practice. That might sound like a lot of work for a virtue—and it is, but once the muscle is trained it turns on when needed and the mystery of something else takes over so that you are able to function fully and in relative harmony with everything else that is happening all around you.
Perhaps that was what Paul was insisting on when he penned these words:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
The word “abound” speaks to me as an experience that is deeply physical, full of vitality and with an endless supply of energy that ultimately comes from the divine. Imagine embodying hope to the point that it is not just an intellectual process, but something more; something that you are full of. A virtue that when needed just starts pouring from you, along with peace and joy. You are being hope and mirroring it to others wherever you are. Your body exudes hope, a virtue that people gravitate toward and want because of who you are being in the world. Where does that kind of flourishing hope originate from? Well, it begins with Silence! You go inward to come outward. And when you are that full, all else flows.
Well, that could take a lot of time you might be thinking, but with the added gifts of joy and peace in alignment with the Holy Spirit—as the above quote suggests—it sounds like a noble quest—embodying hope. As a practice you might have to spend some time experimenting with the essence of hope— just sitting in quiet and noticing what hope might feel like for you. In other words you would be sensing it: noticing its shape and texture, perhaps certain colors come to mind. Does hope have a sound? After you have experimented with the sensations of hope for a period of time you live with it consciously for a few days. And then commit to 20-30 minutes during the day—flexing that muscle for 21 days, a few months or even a year.
Your life might just change and you’ll be shouting: HALLELUJAH!