The lack of agenda

I wonder if you’ve ever thought about your spiritual journey. I’m sure you have. How did I ever end up here? At this point in my spiritual journey, I’m saying. I think we’re all a little hard on ourselves when we look at our spiritual journey. In fact, that’s probably a good thing because otherwise we would be looking at ourselves reflectively in the mirror and describing how wonderful we’ve done so far. As my mother often proclaimed when I made something of myself “self-praise is no praise, Michael.”

She was right of course. Self-praise is no praise. And yet we can see how we’ve made some progress, or at least that we’re interested in doing so. The more that we ditch ourselves, goals and agendas, the greater the progress. Funny how that works.

Centering prayer is perhaps one of the deeper dives that we make on this journey. Entering a space that we’re not really sure what’s going to happen, no expectations except the willingness to explore. And yet it seems to produce some of the better results. Father Thomas Keating says in many parts of his literature and teaching, that God is within us so why not let God do the praying.

I am asked, not that infrequently, how did I end up on the wrong side of the country to all my kids and grandchildren and leave a high-tech industry that had treated me quite well over my career.  The answer is to that question is really, I have no idea. I do think being inquisitive, willing to try something new, and not knowing or expecting a specific outcome has helped me. Perhaps rather allowed God to guide me. The lack of steering, or a rudder, has managed to keep me off the rocks, even during the stormy weather which has peppered my life.

This gets me to the point of the reflection. Lack of agenda may be the most helpful thing we can do for our own spiritual development. The more that I try and concretize actions and outcomes and goals the more difficult that becomes to achieve it. So, what do we do if we don’t have an agenda? We don’t have those goals and objectives. I’m going to be better at praying in six month’s time. Most of us know that is an impossible goal. Why? Because prayer is not a solitary action, it is relationship with God and others. I think another way of us to consider deepening this relationship is to keep whatever mission we have in mind or are called to front and center. Now you might say that’s an agenda as well, but I don’t think that’s totally true.

If we take the Franciscan call to action in prayer, it’s immortalized in the words peace and all good. Is that an agenda? Not really. It’s a signpost for something more important than an agenda. Its alignment. Getting ourselves aligned with something, in this case a call to action and the prayer effects, or should affect every decision and moment that flows out of us. I think this concept of flow which is well understood in eastern traditions such as Taoism, is also relevant in all other traditions. Particularly those that rely on alignment with a higher power, one which we call God in the Christian tradition.

If we check on the alignment, then flow will take us where we need to go.

Reflection Copyright 2024 Michael J. Cunningham