Meditation: Already There

Texts: Genesis 21:8-21 | Matthew 10:24-39

Take a slow breath.

Let your body settle.

Let yourself arrive here, just as you are.

You do not need to have it figured out.

You do not need to hold everything together.

Just be here. Just breathe.

· · ·

Somewhere in you there is something you are holding onto

— a strategy, a certainty, a familiar way of making sense of the world.

You have carried it for a long time.

It has served you.

But it may be blocking your view.

Gently ask yourself:

What am I gripping so tightly that I cannot see what is already here?

Do not judge what rises. Just notice it.

· · ·

Hagar ran out of everything she thought she needed.

And in that emptiness

— when she finally, completely lost her grip —

God opened her eyes.

The well was already there.

Gently ask yourself:

Where might God already be present in the place I most fear?

Do not judge what rises. Just notice it.

· · ·

God is not waiting for you to arrive somewhere more together,

more worthy, more certain.

God is already there

— in the wilderness, in the uncertainty,

in the place where your strategies ran out.

You were heard before you found the words.

You were seen before you knew where to look.

Gently ask yourself:

What might I see if I opened my hands and stopped holding on?

Do not judge what rises.

Just notice it.

· · ·

Now pray:

Holy One, you are El-roi — the God who sees.

You hear our cry before we can form the words.

You are already present in every place we most fear.

When I am holding on too tightly, open my hands.

When I cannot see through the fear, open my eyes.

When I am certain the well is not there, remind me to trust.

I am not alone in the wilderness.

I have never been alone.

Amen.

· · ·

Rest for a moment in this truth:

The well is already there.

God is already here.

You are never alone.

Take one slow breath as you return to your day.