{"id":10355,"date":"2014-10-10T14:27:29","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T14:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/?p=10355"},"modified":"2018-08-01T21:38:03","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T21:38:03","slug":"cracks-a-spiritual-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/featured\/cracks-a-spiritual-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracks &#8211; A Spiritual Exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The following\u00a0is a short spiritual exercise that will help you engage\u00a0a little deeper with God.<\/p>\n<p>Take a couple of deep breaths and in prayer, invite Jesus into this time. Begin reading the poem below entitled &#8220;Cracks&#8221; by David Bookless. \u00a0This first reading is to help you get a sense of the entire piece.<\/p>\n<p>Now, read the poem again but this time slowly and meditatively. \u00a0Read it\u00a0line-by-line pausing when a word or phrase &#8211; seems to resonate with you.<\/p>\n<p>When a word or phrase resonates with you, pause and hold it.<\/p>\n<p>What emotions are you feeling?<\/p>\n<p>What things come to mind?<\/p>\n<p>Ask God where and how He is in this for you.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t rush through the <em>tough<\/em> stuff &#8211; trust God is with you and has something for you.<\/p>\n<p>When the time seems right, continue reading, pausing again on the words and phrases that seem to jump out at you.<\/p>\n<p>Hold them.<\/p>\n<p>Offer them to God &#8211;\u00a0What emotions are you feeling?<\/p>\n<p>What comes to mind?<\/p>\n<p>Ask God where and how He is in this for you.<\/p>\n<p>When you come to the end of the poem, prayerfully sit quietly and ask the Holy Spirit to hi-light\u00a0any thoughts, situations or emotions that the Spirit might want to meet you in and simply receive.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You may want to journal your thoughts feelings and impression of what the Spirit may be saying and doing in you.<\/li>\n<li>You may want to share these thoughts with a good friend or <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/experience-spiritual-direction\/\">spiritual director<\/a><\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>Is there anything you feel like you may need to act on?<\/li>\n<li>Stuck? If you get stuck in strong emotions and are having difficulty processing them, don&#8217;t be afraid to visit with a trained therapist.<\/li>\n<li>You may want to make use of the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/soaking.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">streaming audio player from Soaking.net<\/a><\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>Remember, the hallmark of the Kingdom of God is love &#8211; the Father will never come shaming or condemning. \u00a0God comes in perfect\u00a0love, and this will yield peace and rest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>_________________________________<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 180px;\"><strong>Cracks<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bricksky-scraper.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-10364 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bricksky-scraper.png\" alt=\"bricksky scraper\" width=\"68\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0There are cracks in my world;<br \/>\nI noticed them one day and now they are everywhere. Sinister, hairline cracks that<br \/>\nStart and finish out of sight,<br \/>\nCracks that grow and gape<br \/>\nand laugh at my certainties.<br \/>\nMy world has been declared unsafe.<br \/>\nI have tried to paper them over,<br \/>\npaint them out,<br \/>\nshift the furniture to hide them<br \/>\n&#8230; but they always return &#8230;<br \/>\nCracks that hang like question-marks in my mind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0But now I begin to think&#8230;&#8230;.<br \/>\nWhy do the cracks appear?<br \/>\nFrom where do they come?<br \/>\nThey have made my room unsafe<br \/>\n&#8230; but they have thrown it open to new horizons, &#8230; drawn back curtains<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0&#8230; raised long-closed shutters.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0One day I looked, and a crack had become a window to a larger world beyond;<br \/>\nstep through it said<br \/>\n&#8230; what have you to fear?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0Do you wish to stay in your crumbling room?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0And then I remembered a childhood dream Watching the egg of some exotic bird;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-10366\" src=\"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bricksky-scraper2.jpg\" alt=\"bricksky scraper2\" width=\"70\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iamsignificantca.lightningbasecdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bricksky-scraper2.jpg 68w, https:\/\/iamsignificantca.lightningbasecdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bricksky-scraper2-34x300.jpg 34w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px\" \/><br \/>\noval and perfect spotted blue and cream In wished to hold that egg<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0and keep it on a shelf &#8230;<br \/>\nbut as I watched it &#8230;<br \/>\ncracks appeared;<br \/>\nTiny fissures spread like zigzag ripples.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0It broke in two<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0and life struggled to its feet, Wet and weak, and blinking at the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0Without the cracks, that egg could<br \/>\nhold no more than rotting, stagnant death.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0Without its cracks my world would be<br \/>\nno more than a room without a view;<br \/>\nCracks may be uncomfortable, disturbing gaps &#8230; but could it be I need them?<br \/>\nDo you believe in cracks?<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0Because I keep searching for God in the room and find He is hiding in<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the cracks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">&#8211;\u00a0<i>Dave Bookless, <a title=\"God doesn&#039;t do Waste - Dave Bookless\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.com\/1844744736\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">God Doesn\u2019t Do Waste<\/a> \u00a9 1990<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following\u00a0is a short spiritual exercise that will help you engage\u00a0a little deeper with God. Take a couple of deep breaths and in prayer, invite Jesus into this time. Begin reading the poem below entitled &#8220;Cracks&#8221; by David Bookless. \u00a0This first reading is to help you get a sense of the entire piece. Now, read&#8230;","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,34,36,37],"tags":[99,221,246,554],"class_list":["post-10355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-soul-significance","category-tools","category-significant-tools","tag-christian-formation","tag-grace","tag-healthy-faith","tag-wholeness-brokeness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}