The 60-Second Sabbath

Best Life

I want to live
    in the kingdom of innocence
where mystics and children dwell.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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Becoming Childlike

Jesus tells us,
    "Become like a child."
The child--
    in innocence--
does not attempt to be
    anything other
than what they are.
    They naturally pursue,
not self-glorification
    or self-expansion,
but self-fulfillment.

And we adults?
    "Become like children"
and allow the growth
    meant for us by God,
not the one designed
    by our ambitious egos.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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What I Am Not

Let me tell you
    what I am not.

I am not my thoughts.
    Thoughts come and go.
What I think now
    is not what I thought
5, 10 years ago,
    and what I think today
won't be my thoughts
    5, 10 years from now.
My thoughts at some point
    may become jumbled and unfocused.
I am not my thoughts.

I am not my body.
    Fascinating, isn't it,
how every seven years,
    all the living cells in our bodies
will be replaced.
    This won't be the body I have
seven years from now.
    And when my body betrays me,
as it inevitably will,
    I will still be.
I am not my body.

Nor am I my accomplishments.
    These are equally transient,
and someday--sooner than I think--
    they will be forgotten.
I am not my accomplishments.

I am not my beliefs.
    Beliefs, too, are fleeting,
changing (hopefully)
    as I mature and gain wisdom.
No, I am also not my beliefs.

I am not the labels I cling to:
    Democrat or Republican,
Liberal or Conservative,
    Christian, Jew or Muslim.
Labels are merely words,
    and I am not mere words.
I am not my labels.

Which begs the question,
    Who am I? Who is this I to which I refer?
Who--or what--is my essential self?

I wonder...

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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A Prayer for Myself, the President, and All Who Read This

Today,
    grant me
        a shattering, transformative encounter with you, my Christ,
            ego-stripping,
                humbling,
                    overwhelming,
                        overturning.

Awaken me to accept
    that the things I own,
        how much money I have,
            how much power I wield,
                the work I do,
                    how spiritual I am--
    none of it is a measure of my worth.

You are all that matter,
    and therefore, Love is all that matters:
        if my words do not reflect love,
           if my actions do not embody love,
              if I disparage and insult,
    I live in illusion.

But face-to-face with you, my Christ,
    may all illusion crumble.
Leave me stripped,
    naked,
        fragile,
            vulnerable--
    only then will I know Reality,
        only then will I come alive.

Help me to see, my Christ,
    that I am worthy,
        solely and only,
            because I am your beloved.

I am your Beloved.

Only this.

By your grace,
    I release all but You.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Have you ordered your copy of Contemplative Vision: Photography as a Spiritual Practice? 
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