Theologian Howard Thurman (1899–1981) believed that cultivating inner stillness allows us to experience the divine. Lerita Coleman Brown writes:

As a seminary student walking home late one night, Thurman noticed the sound of water. He had taken this route many times, and he had never heard even a drip. The next day Thurman discussed his observations with one of his professors, who told him that a canal ran underneath the street. Because the noises of streetcars, automobiles, and passersby were absent late at night, Howard could discern the sound of water.

Thurman equates these sounds… to the inner chatter within our minds that prevents us from being aware of God’s presence. Quieting the surface noise in our minds is what Thurman urges us to do when he instructs us, as he does throughout his writings, to “center down.”

What attracts and holds our attention determines how and when we will experience God. “In the total religious experience we learn how to wait; we learn how to ready the mind and the spirit,” he writes. “It is in the waiting, brooding, lingering, tarrying timeless moments that the essence of the religious experience becomes most fruitful. It is here that I learn to listen, to swing wide the very doors of my being, to clean out the corners and the crevices of my life—so that when His Presence invades, I am free to enjoy His coming to Himself in me.” [1] Thurman believed this activity may also require letting go of hatred and bitterness so that in coming into your center, you are coming into God as the Creator of existence because “God bottoms existence.”

Brown finds in Thurman’s writings an invitation to be open to the possibility of everyday mysticism for all. 

Thurman demystified mysticism by framing it simply. Mystics are people who have a personal religious experience or an encounter with God. This description has freed me and many others from thinking that God appears to people only after years of prayer and living an ascetic, isolated life. Thurman believed anyone can be a mystic if they are open to the experience. He opened a door to a world where mystics move freely among us and live ordinary lives. Mystics are the ones who can hear the water flowing beneath the street. They know how to quiet the surface noise enough to hear the meaning of all things coursing below daily life.

Everyday mystics are people who commune with the presence of God, receive guidance through prophetic visions, voices, and dreams, and commit themselves to living for God rather than solely for themselves. Their vision for life is larger and more expansive, knowing that they are alive for a reason, a purpose that will benefit human spirits they may never meet…. Thurman lived out an identity grounded in mysticism, as he regularly felt oneness with God and on occasion experienced visions. He also believed that mystical moments should stir people toward love, community, and social action.

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One by one, all of Naaman’s pagan assumptions about Israel’s God were dismantled. By refusing to even meet Naaman, Elisha was showing that Israel’s God did not depend upon human mediators or experts. By not giving Naaman any elaborate healing ritual to perform, Elisha was revealing that Israel’s God could not be controlled by magic or incantations. And by rejecting any gift or payment for his healing, Elisha was telling Naaman that Israel’s God was self-sufficient. He needed nothing from the hands of mere mortals.The independence of Israel’s God stood in sharp contrast with the deities of Naaman’s country. Despite their ferocious reputations, pagan gods were dependent upon their human subjects for food (offered through sacrifices), and shelter (provided through building temples), and their blessings could only be cajoled from their hands (usually through the sorcery of priests). The entire premise of pagan worship was that gods could be manipulated because they had needs. But how do you control a God that has no needs?That was Naaman’s shocking discovery in Israel. What kind of God needs no sacrifices, no temples, no priests, and no offerings? What kind of God cannot be managed with rituals and spells? At some point, an even more marvelous thought must have entered Naaman’s mind. This God of Israel who needs nothing and cannot be controlled chose to heal his leprosy anyway. What kind of God freely loves and blesses a foreigner; the enemy of his people? A casual reading of the story may lead us to conclude that Naaman’s amazement and eventual devotion to Israel’s God was the result of his cleansing from leprosy. We may assume it was God’s miraculous power to heal that transformed Naaman’s life. But it wasn’t. Other gods were known to heal, and lesser deities could manifest miracles—as we see in the story of Moses and the Egyptian sorcerers (see Exodus 7:8-13). The real turning point for Naaman was not his healing, as amazing as that was. Rather, it was Elisha’s refusal to accept Naaman’s gifts. That is when the great man from Syria was confronted with the shocking fact that Israel’s God had healed him expecting nothing in return. What transformed Naaman was not God’s power, but God’s goodness. In a word, it was grace. DAILY SCRIPTURE ROMANS 5:6-8  2 KINGS 5:1-27 WEEKLY PRAYER Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556) Take, Lord, and receive all my freedom, my memory, my intelligence and my will—all that i have and possess. You, Lord, have given those things to me. I now give them back to you, Lord. All belongs to you. Dispose of these gifts according to your will. I ask only for your love and your grace, for they are enough for me. Amen.

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