The Persian Poet Rumi says, “You must always carry an unsolvable problem in your heart.”
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak went into their garage, their unsolvable problem was “How do we make computerized intelligence available to the everyday person?” Apple was born.
When Phil Knight sat down with some rubber and a waffle iron, his unsolvable problem was “How do we make shoes that help cushion the human anatomy?” Nike was born.
When God asked, “How can I get my people to come back to me?” Jesus was born.”
It is when we are willing to carry the unsolvable problem in our hearts that innovation and creativity is born. And in order to solve the unsolvable problem, we must be willing to go deep, for if the answers were on the surface, we would have found them by now. Unfortunately, we live in a world that teaches us to go shallow.
Going deep means being willing to drop the boundaries of your conscious, knowing mind and enter into the silence of that which is already Known.
This is the deepest prayer —
When you wait for the answers…
when you simply
wait…
and as you wait the answer
comes into you
and through you,
if you will.
And as you rise, you realize that somehow you are part of the answer.
I have always been challenged by the concept of meditation. After studying it and realizing that so much of my prayer is a one-way dialogue of directive conversation I decided recently to accept the invitation of a friend to experience the sheer silence of meditation — undirected prayer.
As I went below my “Hello, God,” “Thank you, God,” and “Please, God,” I found myself being able to be at peace, of peace. Without trying to go anywhere with it, or get anything out of it, I felt that my heart was beating at the same rate as God’s. It was a few moments of bliss, of escape, of knowing that I am known.
And I realized just a taste of what the saints and mystics and certainly Jesus must have experienced. I realized in those moments that I already had all the “results” I was seeking—the sense of unity with God.
In Jesus’ prayer “that they may be one, Father, even as you and I are one,” I had before only sensed intellectually what he was saying. But by going deep into prayer I could almost feel it. I had often wondered how, for example, the saints and martyrs could so effortlessly let go of their possessions.
When you realize you are one with God’s love, why would you need earthly possessions?
True love stems ultimately from being “in the vine,” not from following an externally imposed set of rules and restrictions. Goodness becomes the natural order of things when we go deep in the love of Christ, when we enter into the Holy of Holiness that is prayer.
Help me be the answer to the unsolvable problem — if only through my willingness and ability to go deep in you.
~ Laurie Beth Jones
Thoughts and Questions
What is beyond your directive, “Do this, don’t do that, God” prayers?
What if you could be there, with and in God all the time?
Hi Laurie Beth, This is a great topic. Last fall, I was guided through a Lectio Divina with a small group. It was the first time that I received a clear vision of what God had in store for me. We all could take a pause and spend more time off screens and in meditation with Jesus.
This was sooooo good. A couple of points especially resonated with me:
#1 "As and as you wait, the answer comes into you"
#2 "True love stems ultimately from being “in the vine”