Here. Now. Accept. Allow.

Good morning…

On her way to our spiritual direction session in our basement, she ran into traffic on a drizzly Monday morning.

“I had to calm down my racing mind,” she said. “Sue will not care if I arrive a bit late. I needed to breathe myself down from my head to my heart.”

A red light happened to happen. She said, “The prayer I have learned to pray rose up in me as I waited for the light to turn green. ‘I am here. I am now. I accept. I allow.’ A sense of peace filled me as I look around, to the left, to the right. I sensed God’s presence everywhere.”

As we unpacked her thoughts, I asked her to repeat the prayer she had shared.

I am here.

I am now.

I accept.

I allow.

After God concluded our ninety-minutes together, I lingered in the sacred space and jotted on a piece of scrap paper these words calling out to my spirit. Etching them over, again and again, the gravity of God grabbed hold and took me down to the very ground of my being. Sitting still at the bottom of myself with God, I remembered the words of John 15:4 (MSG). “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.” 

For as long as was needed, I rested at home in God as God rested at home in me. When the moment was right, I took the paper and cut out an arrow, pointing the way down into my true home in God, the only living Lord who…is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8, NIV). I laid the arrow on a colorful page of scrap paper nearby. I took a photo of God’s invitation into the descending way.

Down into the dark unknown of the here and the now, might I grow to accept? Might I surrender to allow?

The Spirit invited me to take a small step forward, shortening my prayer into four simple words. “Here. Now. Accept. Allow.” I transferred the four word prayer into a birthday card I had kept. Then I pulled out a small circle frame a friend had gifted me during this incredibly fertile season of Lent. I traced around the one inch circle, cutting out and framing the simple prayer. I placed the restful reminder in the living room of our home.