How Do You Connect to God Right Where You Are?

In the last several months, I’ve noticed a theme crop up in numerous conversations with friends, acquaintances, and strangers. That theme has, at its root, a question:

What does it look like for me to connect to God in my specific life station or personality type? 

This has a lot of bearing on the work done here at Still Forming, and I’ve begun to take this question seriously.

For instance, the foundation of this site is a week-daily invitation to a moment of stillness in your day. But what if moments of stillness rarely exist in your world? What do you do if quiet reflections of the heart are a luxury you can barely fathom?

Or, what if you’re an extrovert? What if you’d rather be outdoors than sitting quietly at your desk, reading the scriptures? What if you need to see and hear and touch God to know he’s real, rather than use your intuition?

In other words: 

Is there room for me and God to connect, no matter where I am in life or how I’m made? 

My response to that question is yes. And I’ll share more of my thoughts on this here with you as I continue to explore and consider the question. (Some of my thoughts on the question have been previously written here, here, here, and here.)

But for now, I’d like to open up an opportunity for you to share your input. 

Where is God where you live right now? How are you finding God in the midst of your current life station?

How do you connect to God through the way you’re made? How does he make himself uniquely personal to you and the person that you are?

Are You a Thinker or a Feeler, and Other Helpful Considerations

Yesterday we began a small series on the topic of discernment. Through each of the daily posts this week, we are going to consider how we practice the art of discernment in our lives and what we can learn about our process of discernment to help us in future moments of decision in our lives. 

In yesterday’s post, I asked you to look back upon your life to see if there has been a pattern or process to your decision-making. Today, I’m going to take that a step deeper and ask you to consider aspects of your personhood and how those have historically played into your decision-making process — or how they might help you in the future. 

If you are familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, you know that it carries four categories of indication for each person’s make-up. 

• Introvert or Extrovert
• Senser or Intuitive
• Thinker or Feeler
• Perceiver or Judger

There are loads of resources that you can find to explain each of these type indicators and to help you determine which indicators are your dominant preference. But today, I want to consider how these personality type indicators can become helpful to our process of discernment. 

Let’s take, for example, the difference between a thinker and a feeler.

For someone who is a thinker, charting out a pro-and-con list for a particular decision-point can prove immensely clarifying and helpful. A thinker will also be helped along in their decision by conducting research or appealing to those with knowledge and/or experience related to the decision-point they are considering.

Someone who is a feeler, on the other hand, might find themselves better served by noticing the emotive affect a particular decision casts upon them when they hold it inside themselves. They may also be helped by paying attention to the physical responses of their bodies when weighing one decision over another. 

By way of another example, consider introversion and extroversion.

These categories speak to how each of us gains or loses energy. An introvert becomes weary from too much external stimulation and becomes energized and filled up through “down times” of solitude — times that allow them to think, reflect, and rest in the quiet. An extrovert finds that solitary, quiet activity a bit draining, however, and becomes much more energized when around other people.

Which type are you, and how might that truth of yourself shed light on the best decision you are seeking to make? Has your personality preference type served you to discern a decision you needed to make in the past? 

Take Me as I Am

I was at the contemplative eucharist service at our church last night, and the Iona chant we’ve been singing recently is a simple verse that begins with the words, “Take, O take me as I am.” 

I couldn’t help but notice how appropriate those words are for me to sing right now. Lately I’ve been struggling with powerful emotions I’m not used to feeling. They rise to the surface in sudden moments, and words flit through my mind or stumble out of my mouth that seem so unlike the person I’ve known myself to be. 

In some ways, I see these emotions as quite helpful. They’re helping me know my heart in a deeper way than I’ve known it before. I’m becoming aware of things that matter to me, and of ways I’m being invited to change and form and grow and interact with the world around me in different ways than I have before.

But in other ways, the power of these emotions scares me. I’m not so sure they’re wholly good. Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t. Maybe they’re both. (That’s probably the case.) But the part that doesn’t feel the holiness of these emotions is the part that drives me to my knees before God, begging for mercy and wisdom. 

I’m so aware of my frailty and fallenness. 

And so this simple chant, asking God to take me as I am, provides great comfort. It reminds me that God does take me as I am, that God does meet me in this place, that God does love and accept me right here, even as the formation process of these emotions in me is yet unfinished. 

I’m so thankful for that grace. 

What is it like for you to invite God to take you as you are, right in this very moment? 

Where Has God Been Present to You?

Tonight I attended a healing prayer service at our episcopal parish and was reminded by our rector of the daily examen prayer. 

Have you heard of the daily examen prayer before? 

This is a daily prayer first introduced by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 1500s, who said he considered this daily practice to be the most vital spiritual discipline anyone can incorporate into their daily life. He found the benefits of practicing it too rich to miss for even one day. 

What is the daily examen prayer, you ask? 

It is a time set aside at the end of each day to prayerfully review the day you’ve just finished and consider how God has been present in it.

For example, when I sat and prayerfully reviewed my day today for God’s presence, these are some of the things that emerged in my awareness: 

• The gift of an extended coffee date with one of my dearest friends
• A conflict with Kirk that ended in our renewed commitment to each other and our life together
• A couple kind e-mails
• The opportunity to meet with my spiritual director
• The smell of rain
• The granting of an unusual request I made of someone recently
• The joy-filled smile of an elderly woman at church tonight
• A spontaneous opportunity to capture a photograph of some beautiful velvety flowers
• The way Diva (my little girl kitty) sits with me at my desk while I work

These are large or little graces that communicated God’s presence and care toward me today. 

What kind of things would be on your list today? 

When I began practicing the daily examen a few years ago, I found that it increased my sense of gratitude at least ten-fold. I became aware of God’s goodness and presence in my daily life in ways I never would have realized otherwise. It led to an increased sense of well-being and joy because I grew in my trust that God was present and actively working in the nitty-gritty details and tiny moments of my life.

That God would care and attend to my daily realities as much as I came to realize he does really floored me.

These days, I typically practice a different daily examen prayer of sorts at the end of each day by listening to a podcast called Pray as You Go. I’ve mentioned this podcast here before, but it’s a 10-15 minute daily recording that includes a different Scripture reading each day with personal reflection questions and beautiful sacred music that promotes reflection and reverence. I love it.

Today I encourage you to practice the daily examen by prayerfully considering your day and then asking: where has God been present to you in this day? 

What Are Your Sources of Wisdom These Days?

I started reading the book of Proverbs this week and began with the short introduction written by Eugene Peterson. I found a couple things quite interesting and helpful in his description of this little book of sayings. 

First, he said that living well on this earth is about “living in robust sanity.” Robust sanity. What an interesting way to describe the desirable way to live, don’t you think? 

He then says this robust sanity is the same thing as wisdom: 

Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves. It has to do with becoming skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace.

I really appreciate this description of wisdom. It connects to real life, covering the gamut of situations we actually encounter daily. And he says wisdom is about learning to live skillfully inside this variety of life situations.

It made me wonder: what are the sources in our lives that help us cultivate wisdom such as this? 

Do you think about the sources directing your life and actions? What is teaching you the way to live right now? Are there certain sources you might seek out more intentionally for help in this area, or other sources you might leave better alone?

What Can He Give You?

There’s a small corner in my house that I consider my sacred space. It holds a dark wood antique desk, a black wooden chair draped with a lap blanket, and a tall dark bookshelf that holds my favorite books and meaningful gifts. On the desk is my Bible and current sacred reading, as well as a few symbolic ornaments. Right in my line of sight as I sit at the desk is a small area I call my “wall of grace”: hanging upon it are several symbolic and sacred pieces of artwork that remind me of my heart with God.

This is the place where I meet God. It is the place where, each morning, I take my mug of coffee and sit for an extended period of time in the quiet. I open the white curtains to reveal the foliage and brick-lined street just outside my window, and I breathe a small prayer for God to meet me as I open the pages of Scripture to read.

It is the place where, after having read, I sit and reflect and pray. It is where I type my prayers and thoughts onto pages that I feed through my vintage typewriter and then place into a manila folder that holds all my thoughts and prayers for that particular season of life.

And yet, for the last month or so, I have not spent much time sitting in this sacred corner.

At the beginning of May, I took a 5-day silent retreat on Captiva Island that was profound and formative, but when I returned home I plunged into a season of intense activity and transition.

I researched and wrote the final capstone project for my graduate degree, and I traveled north to Michigan to participate in my graduation festivities. I was offered the opportunity to work on a meaningful project with my church, which led to transitioning out of another work assignment elsewhere. Along the way, my husband received an exciting and fulfilling promotion at work, which has led to a bit of adjustment in our schedules and life at home.

It’s been a season of busyness. Of transition. Of movement. And so my sacred little corner has sat lonely and unused. 

This morning, though, I sat down in this sacred corner once again.

I brought my mug of coffee with me and breathed a small prayer for God to meet me here. I opened the curtains and looked out the window as my little girl kitty sat on my lap and let me rub her ears.

Then I opened to the fourth meditation of With Burning Hearts by Henri Nouwen and read about the ever-giving love of our Christ in these words: 

Jesus is God-for-us, God-with-us, God-within-us. Jesus is God giving himself completely, pouring himself out for us without reserve. Jesus doesn’t hold back or cling to his own possessions. He gives all there is to give.

— With Burning Hearts, p. 83

As I stand on the cusp of a new season in my own life, I find such hope in these words.

My spirit is a bit tired from the previous season of activity and all the endings and transitions it has held. My heart aches from a lack of time spent here in this quiet corner with God over these past several weeks. My mind races with all there is to do in the weeks and months ahead of this new season before me.

I sit and wonder how I am to behold this new season. I wonder what kind of wisdom and guidance from God will be needed.

I read these words above from Henri Nouwen, and I remember: 

Jesus gives himself to us completely. 

All we need to receive, he will give. All we need to know, he will teach. What can he give to us? All we need to do is ask. He freely gives to us his whole self. In what he gives, there is never any lack.

And so I ask you to consider:

How might you need to receive what Jesus has to give to you this day? What does receiving from God look like for you right now? If you take just a moment to consider, what is it God can give to you?

Noticing God in Everyday Life

The past couple weeks have been full of many surprising adventures!

Front and center is the unexpected trip I took to the Pacific Northwest for my new job. I had so much fun and made unforgettable memories too numerous to count with my new co-workers. So many aspects of that trip created a solid foundation for our team to bond while sharing compelling, incarnational work experiences together. 

While there, I even had a chance to share a great conversation over dessert with the lovely Kirsten Michelle and her loving hubby, James. That was such a treat and a gift. Thank you, my friend, for taking that time with me!

Then there are all the fun surprises and adventures I’ve been encountering back home in our local office! Our company is doing such a superb job preparing us well for the work we’ll be doing together. We’re having a blast as we go along.

Kirk gets quite a kick out of my exuberant downloads at the end of each day. But usually after that high-energy download and a bit of dinner, I crash. This is my naturally introverted self learning how to hit the recharge button. :)

It will be interesting, as I resume classes with Spring Arbor next week, to see how my course-load responsibilities come alongside and support my work life. It seems serendipitous that I’m beginning with a course called “Spirituality in Everyday Life,” geared toward noticing how God shows up in the nooks and crannies of daily life. This ties in well with my recent prayer that God would help me learn how to notice him in the midst of busyness.

As I’m adjusting to these new aspects of life for the next few weeks, I expect to be keeping a lighter presence in this space. It feels important to give myself room to take in these new experiences, focus on learning to do my work well, and keep myself as rested, refreshed, and nourished as possible.

(However, I will mention as an aside that I’ve rejoined Facebook after my 7-month hiatus. If you’d like to be connected in a more informal, ongoing basis that way, send me a friend request — and be sure to mention you’re a reader of this blog if we’ve never personally connected before.)

And in this moment, I’d love to hear from you: What opportunities are you being invited to notice, receive, and relish right now?