Lent Day Four: HEAR

Recite the Primo Credo Today in the Morning and in the Evening:

Hear, O Israel:

the Lord our God, the Lord is one;

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these.

~Mark 12:29-31

Today, on the Fourth Day of Lent, we continue to discuss the Primo Credo. Yesterday we discussed that we will be meditating on it over the period leading up to Resurrection (Easter) Sunday; and we talked about reciting it every morning and every evening. Further, we stressed the importance of intentionality; thinking, feeling, and meaning the words as we repeat them- not just hollowly reciting them. Our goal is to let the words work in us, and hopefully through us, and back out of us.

So let’s start teasing apart the many layers to the “onion” that is the Primo Credo. (It’s a pearl onion, if I do say so…small and multi-layered.)

HEAR is the first word. And so, we take heed, for the God of all creation has called out to us through time and space with a command: “HEAR!”

Watch the video below:

http://youtu.be/M4e87vIRpds

God wants us to listen carefully to what he has to teach us in the Primo Credo. There is so much to be gleaned, that I am going to be hard pressed to cover it all in just forty days, but I will at least highlight the highpoints…

What is involved when you really need to hear something? Ever been on the phone in a crowed room? (Dumb question, huh?) Ever been on the phone and someone in the room where you were attempted to get your attention?

Two things come to my mind:

I need silence, and I need to remove myself from the distractions.

I need to do these two things so that I can hear, but also listen…

I cannot truly love someone (in the active sense of the word love) if I do not give them my time and my full attention.

God instructs us to “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10). He who created us and who knows the workings of our neurological system intimately calls us to silence so that we may know Him. He wants us to set aside time for Him and only Him. He wants us to give him our undivided attention. We need to know Him just as much as we need to love Him.

“Be still and know that I am God!” He implores to us through the clamor.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it well when he said: “Any study of Christ must begin in silence.”

When we quiet ourselves to contemplate God, we must first slow our pace and the sounds around us to a dull roar. We need things to be quiet enough that we can tune into God, become aware of who He is, and who we are in Him. We need to bask in His very essence, in those things that make Him who He Is.

God is…

Omnipotent (all powerful),

Omniscient (all knowing), and

Omnipresent (everywhere).

 

When we begin to truly know God and His unique traits, we truly begin to acknowledge the fact that we are not God.

We are not all powerful…

We are not all knowing…

We are limited by space and time.

Prayer:

~LISTEN I THIS DAY~

Listen I this day to the Father,

Listen I this day to the Son,

Listen I to the Holy Spirit,

Listen I to the Three in One.

God, and Spirit, and Jesus,

In Silence Every Morning,

In Silence Every Night…

Listen I with my Heart,

Heed I with my Soul,

Attend I with my Mind;

Hear I with my Might.

 

©Tracy B. Dickerson, 2010

 

These are “weaknesses” that we must embrace., and in embracing them, we realize that it is okay to be how we were designed to be…human.

Only in embracing this weakness can we put ourselves in a position of safe vulnerability- a position in which we claim our weakness and claim the strength of a Higher Power.

Doing this actually puts us in a very advantageous position-in the palm of His hand.

Slowing down, becoming tuned in allows us to rediscover these truths about God, and by default- ourselves.

It is good to choose a regular time every day to be quiet. As we shut out all the distractions and false voices that the world throws at us, we become more in tune with God and who we are in Him.

Take time now to BE STILL…

Repeat the SHEMA, slowly, deliberately, and intentionally. Let the words work their way deep within you.