Dear Members & Friends,

In her 2003 book, The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming, theologian Catherine Keller invites her reader into the deep stillness of the beginning of the Book of Genesis. The book represents Keller’s effort to take seriously Genesis’s claim that creation is not creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) but creatio ex profundis (creation out of the deep waters, creation as the germinating abyss).

In the Beginning, she describes to her reader, there is a great stillness. A formless, motionless deep ocean with which God interacts, using vibrations of energy to create the universe.

I have never read or understood the Book of Genesis to be an historical document, and I’m not particularly interested in arguments about “the truth” of ancient texts. To me what is important is what we, as humans, make of the meaning of the stories.

Can you imagine a Great Stillness, the holy darkness of a deep ocean in the night? Not something that is frightening, but rather is comforting and full of rich possibilities? After all, each individual human being begins their life in this warm, liquid darkness. This was the image that came to mind when I read Keller’s book. It is from a place of deep rest that some of our best ideas come.

It is easy, with all of the things we have to do, to forget about stillness. To forget to rest, sitting on the edge of the next moment, waiting to spring into action.

What if you tried something new and radical? What if instead of springing from your bed and rushing downstairs to pour yourself a cup of coffee, you paused for a moment on the edge of your bed in the early morning dark and just be still.

Take a moment to consider this whole, brand new day ahead of you, not with dread of your to-do list, or with a weariness about your work day, but to consider all the possibility that lay before you.

Tomorrow morning, if you have presence of mind to do so, sit on the edge of your bed for a moment and cast your imagination into the whole opportunity of a new day. Try this for several days, or even for a couple of weeks. Perhaps a moment of stillness in the beginning of your day could become an enriching habit of spiritual practice.

Tomorrow morning, if you have presence of mind to do so, sit on the edge of your bed for a moment and cast your imagination into the whole opportunity of a new day. Try this for several days, or even for a couple of weeks. Perhaps a moment of stillness in the beginning of your day could become an enriching habit of spiritual practice.