Process II

What’s going on here? I call it dropping in, from the head to the heart. The heart (or spirit or will) is the deepest part of our being. It is the place where, if we knock, the door will be opened. It is that place where, with our consent, the Holy Spirit sets up residence. But there are competing forces at work. The cares of the world distract us.

CS Lewis nailed this process in Mere Christianity. He wrote:

“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through.”

What “right part of us” is he referring to? What kind of life is he referring to?

I also like his description of the process. When we practice shoving back the distractions the life comes flowing in, “only for moments at first” but as we practice doing this, this new sort of life will be “spreading through our system.”

So we do what Jesus did. We make it our custom to go to a high place in solitude and pray. We learn to be sensitive to when that “new sort of life” is fading, and let the Spirit lead us back to the wilderness. When that new sort of life is spread through our system, we engage with the world from that “other point of view.”