In an ongoing quest for transparency (or perhaps just accountability?), the following is an unedited homework excerpt from Week 3 in my recent Spiritual Formation class.
I hope to continue to learn from this airing of dirty laundry, this thinking out loud (or on paper, or on the internet, or whatever). Whew...deep breath. Here goes.
Describe one of the familiar disciplines in the weekly reading and why it has been meaningful or helpful to your spiritual life:
I love intercessory prayer, even though I don’t always feel as if I do it well. It gives me a way to connect with and invest in friendships and spiritual relationships in new and deeper ways...to say “I’ll pray for you” -or even better, “I’ve been praying for you”- and to mean it, and to have my friends (and especially the college students and young adults that we minister to) know that I mean it. It’s beautiful.
Note: I want to do this more. A lot more.
Describe one of the new or unfamiliar discipline in the weekly reading and why you might try to implement it in your life and ministry in the future:
I’ll be honest, Devotional Reading is not 100% new to me, but I really, really resonated with the accompanying quotation (as both a student and a teacher):
"Our desire to know more, read more and study more can be another expression of our culture and its acquisitive nature. Knowing God, not knowing more, is the goal." -Ronald Rolheiser
I’m not always great at this, but it’s what I want. Or at least it’s what I want to want!
Note: I sometimes -okay often- struggle with letting my desire to know and read and study and do more get in the way of knowing God and others more. I know, I know...I'm working on it! It's a process (and one I kinda suck at).
Describe one of the disciplines from the weekly reading that you would have trouble practicing and describe why this would be:
I really struggle with the idea of fasting, particularly how it’s sometimes presented in the context of Lent. Giving things up tends to make me disgruntled rather than more spiritually focused!
Having said that, I also feel like intentional simplicity is a fundamental, bedrock principle for Christian spirituality, so...it’s possible I’m just hung up on myself. :) So perhaps the answer isn’t food, but rather the internet or television or...something. I feel like there’s undiscovered worth here yet!
Note: I'm officially looking for ways to simplify my life in ways that free up more time, money, and energy to invest in more Jesus-y ways. Suggestions are always welcome!
