NO WALLS: A 20-Minute Christian Meditation for Anyone Who Feels Confined | Crossroads Meditations

You can close your eyes if you want to, or you can simply soften your gaze. There is nothing you need to accomplish right now. Nothing you need to prove, nothing you need to fix. For these next few minutes, simply be here. Take a slow breath in, hold it for just a moment. And breathe out. Again, breathe in slowly. And breathe out. Let your shoulders relax. Unclench your jaw. Let your hands rest and breathe. There may be sounds around you, doors, voices, footsteps, movement. You do not have to fight against those sounds. Let them come, let them go. And beneath all of it, remember this, God is here. Not somewhere far away. Not waiting for you somewhere else, here, right now. It just says, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? The answer is nowhere. There is nowhere you can go where God cannot find you. There is no wall thick enough. No door strong enough. No distance great enough. No mistake large enough. God is here. Take another slow breath and imagine for a moment that you are standing outside. There are no walls around you, no fences, no locked doors. Be an open field, stretching toward the horizon. Tall green grass moves gently in the wind.

You can hear it brushing against it. The air is warm. The sky above you is enormous. You lose stretching farther than you can see. Take a breath. Imagine the feeling of fresh air moving across your face. You do not have to go anywhere. You do not have to hurry. Just stand there. Let the sky remind you how big the world is, and let it remind you how much bigger God is. The book of Psalms says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." Look toward the horizon. There is more beyond what you can see. Your present circumstances are real, but they are not the entire story of your life. [BLANK_AUDIO] God is still writing. [music] Now begin walking. The grass beneath your feet slowly becomes a narrow path. [birds chirping] Ahead of you, the landscape changes. Trees begin rising around you. Huge trees, ancient trees. [birds chirping] Their branches stretch high overhead. Sunlight breaks through the leaves in beams of gold. [birds chirping] You hear birds somewhere in the distance. Leaves move gently in the breeze.

And underneath those sounds, water. [birds chirping] At first, it is quiet. Then louder. [birds chirping] You keep walking until the trees open before you. [birds chirping] And there it is, a waterfall. [birds chirping] Water pours over a massive wall of stone into a clear pool below. Mist rises into the air. Sunlight catches the water. [birds chirping] For a moment, just watch it fall. Constantly moving, never holding on. [birds chirping] Take a breath in, and when you breathe out, imagine placing something you have been carrying into that water. [birds chirping] Maybe anger. Maybe regret. Maybe fear. Maybe shame. Maybe grief. Maybe something you cannot even name. [birds chirping] You do not have to pretend it never happened. You do not have to solve it right now. And continued by the end. Just loosen your grip.

Let the water carry it for a moment. [birds chirping] Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." [birds chirping] So let yourself rest. You have carried enough. You do not have to carry everything alone. [birds chirping] Listen to the water. Breathe. God is here. [birds chirping] After a while, the path continues. You walk deeper into the forest. The air feels cooler now. [birds chirping] Green surrounds you. Leaves. Vines. Moss. Life growing everywhere. [birds chirping] Small drops of water. Rest on leaves. Somewhere nearby. Birds crawl back and forth through the trees. [birds chirping] Everything here is alive. [birds chirping]

And you'll hurt it. And you remember something Jesus said. Look at the birds at the air. And Jesus says, "Your father knows you. He sees you. He knows what you need." So for this moment, allow yourself to be known. You do not have to hide from God. You do not have to impress him. He already knows the whole story. The things you are proud of. The things you regret. The things nobody else knows. And still, you are here. Still breathing. Still loved. Still invited. Keep walking. The trees begin to thin. Ahead of you, mountains rise. Massive. There's no resting across their highest peaks. You begin climbing slowly. One step at a time. The air becomes crisp. The world below grows quieter. Eventually, you reach a ridge and you stop. Help. Miles of mountains stretch before you. Valleys. Forests. Rivers. Clouds. Moving between distant peaks. You can see farther than you could before. Sometimes life looks different when you see it from a different place. The problem that once filled your entire vision becomes one part of a much bigger landscape. Take a breath. Think about your life. Not just this chapter. The whole story. The child you once were. The person you are today. And the person you could still become. There are chapters that have already been written. Some beautiful. Some painful. Some you wish you could rewrite. But there are pages ahead of you that are still blank. You are still here. Your story is not finished. God is not finished. It's for spread, Teasical. Scripture says, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. New. Not pretending the past did not happen. Not erasing consequences. But becoming someone different. Someone new. Take another breath. Now imagine the sun beginning to set behind the mountains. The sky becomes gold. Then orange. Then deep red. The light stretches across the valley. And slowly. Night comes. You find yourself lying beneath an open sky. Thousands of stars appear above you. More than you could count. You stare upward. And for a moment you feel beautiful. Psalm 8 asks, "When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, what is mankind that you are mindful of them?" And yet, God is mindful of you. Out of billions of people, God knows your name. He knows exactly where you are. He knows every day that brought you here, and he knows every day still ahead. But that's settle for a moment. You are known. You are seen. You are not forgotten. Take a slow breath, and now, in your own words, speak to God. You do not need religious words. You do not need the right words. You can say, "God, I'm angry. God, I'm scared. God, I'm tired. God, forgive me. God, help me. God, I miss my family. God, I don't know what happens next. God, I'm here." And then, be quiet for a moment. You do not have to fill the silence. Let God meet you there. Now, take another breath. Feel the air into your lungs. Feel your chest rise. And remember, the place around you may have walls, but your soul is not made of concrete. Your imagination has no fence. Prayer has no locked door. Hope has no ceiling. And the presence of God cannot be incarcerated. Jesus said, "I am with you always." Always, here, today, tonight, tomorrow morning. When you feel strong, when you feel afraid, when you feel hopeful, when you feel forgotten, as sad-fortunate, you are not alone. Take one final slow breath in and breathe out. As you return your attention to the room around you, carry one image with you. The open field, the waterfall, the forest, the mountain, the stars, whatever place gave you peace. but to remember that reality is larger than the walls around you. God is here, your story is still being written, and there is still more ahead. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]