In light of recent events, you are not alone if you feel unsettled and afraid. Things are crazy out there! What on earth is God doing? I mean like literally, what are you doing God, on the earth? ‘Cause from where I’m sitting it looks like you aren’t doing anything.

I know what people expect from a spiritual director in moments like this. I sincerely wish I had some insight or practice that could magically inject peace and assurance into your heart! But I don’t.

What I do have is Jesus. Please don’t roll your eyes and stop reading! Hang with me for a minute.

In difficult times like these, faith is letting our attention be led by the Holy Spirit. As Paul prays for us in Ephesians: “That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know” the hope of the glorious inheritance we have in Jesus, and the “immeasurable greatness of [Jesus’] power.”

What does being “led by the Spirit” look like in practice?

Have you ever pulled that prank on a group of friends where you stare intently at a random spot on the ceiling? You know how everyone else eventually starts looking up with you, trying to see whatever you are looking at?

It’s like that. Look where the Spirit is pointing. Gaze, long and lovingly, at what he is gazing at. And the Holy Spirit points towards Jesus.

Jesus is what God has done on earth. Jesus was God invading the chaos of this world. Like dawn breaking over a dark battlefield or a fresh spring bursting forth in the middle of a desert. With his church, Jesus established a beachhead for heaven on earth.

And Jesus is what God is doing on earth. Here and now. He claims us in our baptism. He forgives our sins through his word. He unites himself to us in the bread and the wine.

“Listen to Jesus!” says the Spirit, “Watch him! Touch him! Know him!” (1 John 1:1).

The spiritual practices

This is why the fundamental practices in the spiritual life are all “contemplative.” The word literally means “To be in the temple with” (con - with + templum - temple). Contemplative practices like silence, solitude, and stillness are all worshipful, responses to being in the presence of God. They are all ways of turning and opening my attention to what Jesus has done and is doing.

They are acts of worship.

And you know what? When I turn the eyes of my heart away from the chaos and instead contemplate what Jesus has done and is doing, I feel a lot better! Because my attention has expanded to see things as they really are.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his faithful love endures forever…
The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid.
What can a mere mortal do to me?
(Psalm 118:16).

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