The Guest House & Ephesians 4:29-32: How to Make a Home of Yourself

 

The Guest House (Rumi)

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness

Some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

Who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

For some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

Meet them at the door laughing,

And invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

Because each has been sent

As a guide from beyond.

²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. ~ Ephesians 4:29-32

NOTE: For this prayerful meditation, feel free printing this image for yourself:

1)     “This being human is a guest house,” Rumi says. So let’s start there. I want to invite you to take your poetry card and turn to the image of the house. You get it, right? The house is “you.” The Apostle Paul will use similar imagery, also referring to each of us as a building -  “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19). Even Jesus will take up this building / body metaphor calling us, in the Sermon on the Mount, to pray in our “inner or private room” (Matt. 6:5-6). New Testament scholars point out that first-century Galilean homes didn’t have inner or private rooms and that some of Jesus’ earliest interpreters understood him to be referring to an inner spiritual reality, a sort of “home in our heart,” as it were, where “closing the door” meant to silently meet with God in our inner person. Within this building-body metaphor of Rumi, Paul, and Jesus, something important emerges. First, we are “sealed” and inhabited by the Holy Spirit, “a guide from beyond.” So take a look at the image of the house. Prayerfully consider, where does the Holy Spirit currently reside in the “house” of my body – the attic, the front door, the window, outside? What is your experience of the Holy Spirit in your life? Honestly consider the question, what is the Spirit doing in my life? And if you have never done so, becoming a Christian means to welcome the Holy Spirit, as owner of the house, in your life, “sealing” you for redemption. Take a moment to prayerfully and silently enter your “inner room” and place, write, or sketch where the Holy Spirit is and note what the Spirit is doing.

 

TAKE A MOMENT TO PRAY, REFLECT, & WRITE

 

2)     But, there’s more than the Holy Spirit, we learn, in this house. There’s also, Rumi and Paul, tell us, unexpected visitors – emotions like joy, depression, meanness, or shame. The Apostle Paul will speak of others like bitterness, rage, and slander. And both Rumi and Paul will mention malice. Alongside the Spirit, who are the unexpected visitors that you have showing up in your house? Take a moment to write or draw them into the picture as well. Where do they fit in the image? What are they doing – lounging around, breaking things? Remember, the Apostle Paul advises that “building others up” demands that one listens. When you listen to your unexpected visitors, what are they telling you?

 

TAKE A MOMENT TO PRAY, REFLECT, & WRITE

 

3)     Rumi’s poem offers sage advice on how to handle the unexpected, even troubling, inner emotions that plague us. Metaphorically, he encourages us to “Welcome and entertain them all . . . treat each guest honorably . . . meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in . . .” and “be grateful.” When set alongside Scripture this advice helps us read Paul in ways that are personally meaningful and appropriate. While Paul in Ephesians is not talking about our inner emotional states, his instruction on how to handle difficult people nevertheless offers guidance that can also help us handle our emotions, particularly the difficult ones that want to “sweep the house” empty of all its furniture. For example, Paul says not to engage in any “unwholesome talk.” That word “unwholesome” in Greek literally means “rotten,” as when referring to fruit that has gone bad. Perhaps a contemporary translation might be to say, “trash talk.” I’m always amazed at people who would never speak ill of others and then say or think awful things about themselves. Paul will go on to say that we must not trash talk but instead “be kind and compassionate . . . forgiving . . . just as in Christ God forgives.” This wasn’t how I had been taught to think of myself or treat my emotions. Emotions, particularly ones that weren’t nice and tidy, were to be kicked to the curb, or chained in the basement, or locked in the closet. They certainly weren’t to be honored and helped. And yet what if Jesus’ encouragement to “love our neighbors”, to “treat others as we would want to be treated,” and even “love our enemies,” also works for dealing with the parts of ourselves that we might find embarrassing or, even, sinful? What if, as Paul instructs, we encountered our inner demons, with the same forgiveness and love that God offers us in Jesus? Once, early on in my experience of Centering Prayer in which I silently consented to surrender myself to the inner workings of the Holy Spirit, I had an odd experience where I saw myself sitting at a table with different emotional versions of myself. There was a mad-self, a prideful-self, a sad-self, an ashamed-self, and they were all acting out and creating quite a ruckus. The self that was at the head of the table had a pie in front of him and began to cut pieces and give them to each version saying, “It will be okay. You are loved. Have some pie.” There was no trash talk, no language of “Get out of here!” Or, “Shape up!” Or, “Stop whining like a little baby.” And after everyone was served, they began to calm down, and began to look and speak as one. What if, by the power of the Spirit, we are to build ourselves up through kindness and compassion just like we are to do so with others? I’d like to invite you now to prayerfully consider: What might it mean to treat each emotion you experience honorably? What are ways you might, without judgment, kindly and compassionately care for all of the emotions or inner struggles that you are having? I invite you to write or draw ways that you might meet “the dark thought, the shame, the malice . . . at the door laughing.” Or perhaps you want to write the ways that you haven’t treated yourself honorably, trash-talked yourself, and then invite the Spirit to help show you how you might welcome and entertain your emotions as honorable guest.