Have you ever heard of the Enneagram? Think you know yourself? Each year I get to know myself at a deeper level and am slowly understanding how God wired me. I find as I journey through this life, I am accepting and being more compassion of this soul created by God. I’ll journal something and am shocked to reread the words as buried emotions drip from my pen and my heart. My spiritual director asks me a probing question that help me pause and see my actions and behavior in a new light. I quiet myself in the early morning and listen to God. His gentle wisdom guides my self- understanding as a child of God. I mentioned last week a self-assessment I recently completed. You can read that post here. After talking with several of you about that test and what we all learned and pondered, I remembered a book I recently purchased call The Complete Enneagram – 27 Paths to Greater Self Knowledge by Beatrice Chestnut. More light to the age-old question we all face: Who am I? The … [Read more...]
Simple Ideas for the Spiritual Practice of Simplicity
Many of us long to live more simply, but though it sounds easy, implementing this lifestyle is challenging. The spiritual practice of simplicity is this month’s Tending the Holy topic. Each month on my Thursday posts, I pick one theme (or person of faith) to explore deeper. The last two Thursdays, I introduced simplicity, looking at its definition and insights and then listed 10 quotes to ponder and deeper your ideas about this topic. This final week I’m sharing ideas for putting this discipline into practice. Simple Foundation of Simplicity The foundational idea for putting simplicity into action in our daily lives starts with God. It is about God, not us. The central point to simplicity is to seek God first, then everything else will fall into proper order. A single undivided focus on God, a single-minded heart. I am beginning to form a concept about this practice. I identify what distracts me from God and the stuff, possessions, and attitudes I cling to due to fear, hurt, … [Read more...]
Watch What You Pray For
“Watch what you pray for” has been an expression that usually brings a smile of recognition to my face. I nod at its word of caution and crawl back into my safe arena of known predictability. God listens. Be careful, he loves to answer the prayers of his children. “Be careful what you pray for. You just might get it.” - Anonymous Praying can be dangerous business when you trust God and take those steps out of your comfort zone. I enter into prayer wanting the answer to be safe, easy, and clear. I may as well pray: “just fix the problem, Lord. Of course, on MY terms.” But God doesn’t work that way. We come into his presence, tell him our concerns, needs and desires, release them into his hands. He walks with us on this human journey providing times to learn, to be transformed, and to serve. I know this all too well and right now I’m not smiling pleasantly at power of prayer. I’ve taken the risk this summer and ventured into new risky prayers. God is answering me in … [Read more...]
10 Quotes to Ponder about Simplicity
The spiritual practice of simplicity is this month’s Tending the Holy topic. Each month on my Thursday posts, I pick one theme (or person of faith) to explore deeper. Last Thursday I introduced simplicity, looking at its definition and insights about this easy to talk about, but hard to do subject. Next week I will list some practices we can try to create more simple approaches in our living. Today though, I want to share with you some quotes to ponder and take you deeper into spiritual practice. 10 Quotes to Ponder about Simplicity Which one of the follow resonates most with you? Challenges you? Makes you want to copy it and put it in your journal? Take at least one of the quotes and “chew” on it more, allowing the words to open your heart to this practice. Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough. Charles Warner ****** Beware the barrenness of a busy life. Socrates Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast … [Read more...]
Fuel Your Faith – Igniting a Healthy Spirituality
How do we fuel our faith? What do we do when our faith need to be rekindled? When I survey the readers here at Healthy Spirituality, one of the most mentioned struggles is connecting with God and cultivating a deeper relationship with our creator. Too often we live a lukewarm existence mired in a rut of unfulfilled restlessness. How do we live with a vibrant faith? The concept of fueling our faith began to bubble up last year in my heart, my prayers, and my writing. I felt drawn to compiling a resource to help myself and others energize and feed the God-given faith within us. All this led to my latest book. Fuel Your Faith – a Practical Guide to Igniting a Healthy Spirituality is a guidebook to fan the flames of your faith. This book is not a deep theological discourse about spiritual disciplines, but a quick resource for ideas to stir the embers of belief God gives each of us. In Fuel Your Faith, you will: Discover a potpourri of spiritual practices to move you from … [Read more...]
The Spiritual Practice of Worship
I help with worship every Sunday at my church. Before I began this ministry, I assumed that leading the service for others would diminish or even block my own personal worship of our Lord. I convinced myself that I would have to stay mindful, in charge, “on top of things” so I wouldn’t lose my place or mispronounce a word or appear foolish in front of others. Notice: my expectation about leading on Sundays focused on me, my ego, and my façade or disguise. Welcome to Tending the Holy Thursday. Each month on my Thursday posts, I pick one theme (or person of faith) to explore deeper. This month, let’s explore the spiritual practice of worship. I am so excited too about this month’s free download, a beautiful printable called “Worship the Lord.” I compiled 10 verses from the Bible into a one page, easy to refer to guide for your personal study about the topic. You can get this free resource by clicking on the button at the end of this post. Be sure to sign up to get Healthy … [Read more...]
Let God Be Present – Healthy Spirituality Book Chat
Let God Be Present, Uncovering the Will, Courage, and Persistence to Truly Connect is a book recently released by Matthew Brough. This book tackles the often-neglected topic of God’s presence even when you might not want it. It’s hard to admit, but there are times we just don’t want to connect with God. I tend to think as a Christian I “should” want to be in God’s presence all the time. To be honest, sometimes I run from God. I hid from him. I chose to ignore him. As if I could really do those things. Let God Be Present – The Book This book is easy to read and holds short reflections that lead you into pondering a thought for the day. Though the book is not a “how to guide,” Matt doesn’t just leave us hanging in the dark, but provides guidance to tuning in and trusting God more. One sentence I recorded in my journal for further conversations with God is this: “It doesn’t take us long to replace God.” OUCH! A lot of truth in those words. I really like how Matthew … [Read more...]
Quiet Witness
About one hour west of me lives a large Amish community. They are a friendly bunch and traveling in that county is always fun. My good friend, Nancy, and I walked their open-air flea market on Wednesday on a perfect spring day. We found some wonderful treasures and enjoyed our day there. On the way home, we passed a farm field on the north side of Route 20. The scene could have been painted by Norman Rockwell – green billowing grass topped with the blue skies dotted with pure white cumulus clouds. In the middle of this landscape, a bearded Amish man baled hale. Remember the Amish faith doesn’t use modern conveniences, so watching this man work his farm conveyed the perfect image of how we visualize Amish. He rode on the back of his antique machinery pulled by two large beautiful draft horses. Behind him rose rows of mowed green grass, waiting to dry. I said to Nancy, “He doesn’t even know we are watching him, yet his work tells us about his faith. No machinery. … [Read more...]