contemplation

the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart...

brokenness:
acceptable; a precursor; a desirable state?
...before god?

we shared psalm 51 in a contemplative worship gathering last night... a version of it by Sons of Korah was played over and over and over again. something happens in repitition, or perhaps something happens when the norm isn't followed. instead of this piece of music and the corresponding images being played just once, they were repeated, over and over for an hour... the situation likened itself to those times when people who know how to lead silence do so and lead it well, for it goes beyond the predicatable, beyond the comfortable, beyond the knowing and therefore forces a different type of response: a response that requires more, more depth, more honesty, more vulnerability. it invites one to shed pretense, control, knowledge or the needing to know, and invites oneto be. to be present in the moment; present and honest before themselves; present and honest before others; present and honest before god...

a broken spirit and a contrite heart....

the ability to be real, honest, vulnerable...
to name those places where the ego wrestles, where pride longs...
a place of letting go....
a place of holding on...
the inner place
a place of god