Repeat After Me

The Weatherspoon Art Museum (where I work) publishes a quarterly newsletter called ARTicles that features our event calendar, latest exhibitions, etc. Our Summer 2009 newsletter featured a photo of Durham audio artist Sherri Wood’s Mantra Trailer. It’s a 1950’s era camper that’s used as a meditative space where people can record their personal mantras. They are then broadcast online and outdoors, and the words of each mantra are featured on the side of the trailer. Fascinating! The one that we featured on our ARTicles cover was "I Release All Fears and Doubts." Here’s the photo. And here’s the audio recording:  (hopefully these load for you…)

Today has been a pretty cruddy day at work (yes, even though it’s Friday)! So I have been looking at the picture of the trailer, which I have cut from the newsletter and tacked to my bulletin board, and I have been repeating that mantra to myself to keep my blood pressure down. I can almost hear the Heavenly Father saying those words to me over and over.

I release all fears and doubts. I release all fears and doubts. I release all fears and doubts.

Normally, I wouldn’t think of myself as "one who chants." Mindfully repeating this mantra feels a little strange to me actually, like I am participating in some type of religious practice that may or may not be right. But I am also realizing more and more that I do actually already have many of my own mantras that I regularly chant to myself (and sometimes to Bruce). And they aren’t good ones.

I am weak. I am weak. I am weak.

I am ugly. I am ugly. I am ugly.

I can’t do that. I can’t do that. I can’t do that.

I don’t understand. I don’t understand. I don’t understand.

Hardly uplifting, right? So NOT part of the life that God wishes for me! - The life described in Ecclesiastes 3:11-13: “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.”

Obviously, my mantras need a makeover! I should be saying:

My house is on the Rock. My house is on the rock. My house is on the rock.

Be transformed. Be transformed. Be transformed.

I can do all things through Christ. I can do all things through Christ. I can do all things through Christ.

The peace of God transcends understanding. The peace of God transcends understanding. The peace of God transcends understanding.

If strength and peace and joy and love and all good things are what God desires me to have, and He will give them to me, why do I consistently deprive myself of these treasures by filling my mind with distress, self-hate and depression? Shouldn’t He – the One who knows all of my faults – be the only one who judges me? Who points out my flaws? Who brings me down? And yet, He delights in me. He fearfully and marvelously made me. He loves me enough to die for me.

Maybe what I should be saying is
Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord.
Words are powerful.



(BTW Hear more mantras in Wood’s audio art collection here.  Many of them are AMAZING!)