Meditate | Spiritual Amnesia and What's Really Going On

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments, or better yet, your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“Thus says the Lord:

‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

I long for wisdom, strength, and riches! I want these things, but the passage tells me not to glory in them. Even if I am these things—wise, strong, rich—don’t glory in them. Neither am I to wallow if I find myself their opposites—ignorant, weak, and poor. This passage draws at the weight I’ve given to the way I and my life look outwardly. It spurs my attention to a deeper layer of existence. If I’m going to glory, glory in understanding and knowing the Lord. What to know about the Lord? That he is exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, whatever my external circumstances look like. Exercising judgment I take to mean separating the good from the bad in me—a good thing!—giving me, in a word, clarity. These days I understand judgment to mean the way the Lord clarifies my perception of what behavior aligns with love and what doesn’t, through which I gain greater freedom to choose more loving actions through my day. Judgment and lovingkindness are not mutually exclusive. The judgment is from love and leads back to love, expanding one’s capacity for true lovingkindness. And from these come righteousness, the ability and freedom to reorder my life when I notice where misalignment has blocked the flow of love.

The Lord does these things “in the earth.” The Lord is exercising these things in my outer self, the part of me interacting with the external world, even when it doesn’t look or feel like it. I feel like I can feel clear and centered on what is good—even righteous, loving, and clear-minded at times—when I’m sitting and reading by myself. But then when I’m “doing,” interacting, there’s a shift of attention outward to the interface with others and life experiences and here I feel like I have amnesia and the inevitable mishaps of this amnesia. But it’s humbling because I read this passage as telling me that even here, in my outward interactions, the Lord is working. I am living, the Lord is doing. And I find comfort in knowing that although I go back and forth in remembrance, the Lord is steadfast, "He does not rest until love takes the lead" (Secrets of Heaven 63).

Chelsea Rose Odhner

Chelsea appreciates the time for reflection writing this column makes her carve out. In addition to mothering her three young children, she is an assistant editor for New Church Connection and an editor and writer for New Church Perspective.