No Judgment_Contemplative Practice for Soulful Living
Sep 24, 2026 · 5 min · 5 segments
Contemplative Practice
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Sep 24, 2026 · 5 min · 5 segments
Contemplative Practice
I've been reflecting lately on a lesson of James Finley, this great teacher of Christian meditation.
Finley talks about one of the difficulties people experience in the practice of meditation.
It's so hard for some of us to sit still and be quiet.
And one of the reasons it's so hard is because of what can come up in those times.
Sitting with our feelings can be intolerable.
or regrets we have, things of which we're ashamed, wish we'd done differently.
In fact, I remember reading, and it may have been in Finley's book, in fact, about a study in which men in particular would rather issue electric shocks to themselves than to be alone with their thoughts.
Think of that.
Think of the power and the pain.
It's remarkable the shame we carry and the impact that shame has on shutting us down.
But one of the gifts, Finley says, of contemplation of a quiet time with God is that those regrets or feelings or thoughts can arise if we allow them.
They can reveal themselves and they are met with no judgment whatsoever.
Only the quietness of non-judgment.
In the contemplative space, in the space of prayer, we are received, we are accepted, we are loved completely.
I've never been kicked out of a meditation by the one that I met there.
I've been reflecting lately on a lesson of James Finley, this great teacher of Christian meditation.
Finley talks about one of the difficulties people experience in the practice of meditation.
It's so hard for some of us to sit still and be quiet.
And one of the reasons it's so hard is because of what can come up in those times.
Sitting with our feelings can be intolerable.
or regrets we have, things of which we're ashamed, wish we'd done differently.
In fact, I remember reading, and it may have been in Finley's book, in fact, about a study in which men in particular would rather issue electric shocks to themselves than to be alone with their thoughts.
Think of that.
Think of the power and the pain.
It's remarkable the shame we carry and the impact that shame has on shutting us down.
But one of the gifts, Finley says, of contemplation of a quiet time with God is that those regrets or feelings or thoughts can arise if we allow them.
They can reveal themselves and they are met with no judgment whatsoever.
Only the quietness of non-judgment.
In the contemplative space, in the space of prayer, we are received, we are accepted, we are loved completely.
I've never been kicked out of a meditation by the one that I met there.
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