Excerpt from a message by Doug Bennett at Durham Friends Meeting, October 27, 2019
A lot of the time I’m pretty taken with myself. I admit that. I know that. Many days, maybe most days, I can float on a river of “me-ness.” I’m in “me-land” much of the time.
It’s my concerns I’m thinking about; my needs, my wants, my worries, my hopes, my pleasures, my pains. Me Me Me Me Me Me Me. There’s a lot of me in my world.
I may be worse in this regard than most people. I don’t really know, but maybe. I certainly don’t think I’m better at getting away from me-land than most people.
Still, I do notice that most other people most of the time are wondering around in me-land.
It can be a comfortable place to be, even when I’m annoyed or unhappy about something. I’m the most important person in me-land. What I want is the most important thing. My thoughts are the ones I want to hear – and often the ones I want others to hear. My hurts, my pains are the ones that seem to most need attention.
How about you? Are you number one in your feelings and thoughts most of the time? Are you in Me-land much of the time?
I don’t believe I’ll ever fully escape Me-land, but I think I’m better for getting out as often as I can. I know I’m going to wind up back in Me-land but I don’t give up trying to escape.
Where’s the door? Where’s the pathway out? Where’s the secret tunnel or hidden stairway? How do I get outside of Me-land? How does anyone?
Actually, I’ve come to think there may be many ways to escape. Some work better for some people; some work better for others. (Number 6 found a different way to try in each episode of The Prisoner.) If you want to escape and are willing to try, you have to find the way or the ways that work for you.
Here’s one way that works for me – one pathway: waiting worship.
In Meeting for Worship, I try to lay down all the Me-ness. I try to quiet the voices in my head that I know are “me” voices. I try to lay aside the voices that are talking about my wants, my needs, my hopes, my concerns, and see if I can hear another voice – let’s call it the voice of God.
Is it really God’s voice? (How do I know who or what God is? I don’t know. That’s ‘beyond me.’) All I know is that sometimes I can find another voice, and it’s not mine. It’s a voice ‘beyond me.’ It’s more than me.
Making friends with that voice is important to me. Making friends with that voice settles me, makes me more aware. Makes me (I think) a better person.
It’s a voice that connects me. It connects me to ‘whoever-that-voice-is’ (call it God or Spirit or Light). But it also connects me to other people. It helps me know them better – and in a way that’s less colored by “me-ness.”
Do you have someone in your life who really knows you well? Who’s honest with you, always, but always tells you things in a really tender and loving way? I hope so. (Actually, I’m pretty sure you do.)
It’s great if that someone is another person: a partner, a child a friend. That bond of knowing you well, that connection, is love.
But there’s something else, I believe, that can know each of us really well – who loves us. That’s the voice of God I seek in worship. That’s the voice we seek together.
And the connection that voice makes with us is love. Love: that’s what’s “beyond me.”
The entire message can be found at Doug’s blog, River View Friend.
