Focus of today's meeting is on making a choice
1. meditation
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cWCpr38Dm9M
2. song
You Will Show Me the Path of Life
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlegZ-qNQsw&list=PLvxPdu4DGGZLZbD6qHIgMRX6Lto7dHisF&index=92
3. Narrative
Week Twenty:
Choosing Love in a Time of Evil
Making a Choice
Between stimulus and response
there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our
response lies our growth and our freedom.
—Viktor Frankl
The quote above sounds like something a teacher of contemplation
would say! The practice of contemplation helps us to stand back from ourselves
and take the view of what I and others call “the stable witness.” Then we are
not attached to our thoughts or our knee-jerk reactions, and we can find the
space we need to choose the way we want to act or the words that would be most
helpful. While he is not known as a teacher of contemplation, psychiatrist
Viktor Frankl (1905—1997) developed this wisdom during his time as an inmate in
Auschwitz. He writes:
The experiences of camp life show that humanity does have a
choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which
proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Humanity can preserve
a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible
conditions of psychic and physical stress.
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the people who
walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of
bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that
everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human
freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose
one’s own way. . . .
Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food
and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in
certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person
the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision [emphasis
mine], and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore,
any person can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of
them—mentally and spiritually. They may retain their human dignity even in a
concentration camp. . . . It is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken
away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful. . . .
The way in which a person accepts their fate and all the
suffering it entails, the way in which they take up their cross, gives them
ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper
meaning to their life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the
bitter fight for self-preservation they may forget their human dignity and
become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a person either to make
use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a
difficult situation may afford them. . . .
When we are no
longer able to change a situation . . . we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s
Search for Meaning (Beacon Press: 1959, 2006), 65–67, 112. Note: Minor
edits made to incorporate gender-inclusive language.
4. Prayer
Accepting God’s Will Prayer
Jesus, my Savior, I know that living in Your will is the best and safest place to be. During those moments in my life that bring me to the lowest valleys filled with sorrow, I ask that You help me accept whatever happens. Help me to see past my wants and wishes. Remind me that You are in control and You know best. Keep my mind filled with Your promises and show me that when I am living in Your perfect will, all other things will fall into place. In Your name, I pray. Amen.
6. song
Be Thou My Vision
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ihJAJA4ibEs
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