Today our guest is Christine Hiester. I have followed Christine on her blog and through Instagram for a number of years. I finally got to meet Christine in person last year at a retreat where she led us in prayer art journaling. Christine is a talented musician, an art journaler and a spiritual director in training. I think I am also drawn to Christine because we are both INFJ's! You can follower Christine's art on Instagram @barebranchblooming and her spiritual direction @shapingtheriver.
Thank you Christine for contributing to our Lenten Journey!
I prepare for Prayer Circle and write, “Prompts for Reflection”.
I breathe deeply and search internally for what I think God wants me to ask the
members of our Circle. What would He ask me this moment? What is it that I hear
deep inside, in that Spirit-space that resonates with His voice? The space that
resonates when I am still enough to listen, that is.
Reflection: noun, meaning “an image seen in a mirror or shiny
surface.”
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I Am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
I know this: I can’t be that mirror when I am not still. And my
internal world, like a mountain lake, or a forest stream, needs a hushed sense
of reverence to be clear and still enough to offer the God of Love a true
canvas on which to create. I know this, and yet I am still learning. I am ever
a beginner. In the spiritual life we never arrive.
Oddly enough, the very thing that gives me this sense of hushed
stillness, the practice that shows me more of God than any other, that allows
me to be the mirror, is also a meaning of the word reflection.
Reflection: noun, meaning “serious thought or consideration; contemplation.”
Contemplation. A posture of quiet before God. I practice this
posture of prayer in many ways, not least of which is the act of creating with
color and clippings, glue and glitter. Art has always been an open and still
place of the Spirit for me. A Spacious Place. Our life in Christ is a wide-open
meadow of possibilities.
“He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me
because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:19
So I plan the Prayer Circle this Lent, a weekly space of
contemplative prayer, to remind myself. To let God lead me, and in that gently
leading, guide others who have the same desire for stillness.
How do you practice stillness? I’d love to hear.
