Ten Tips for Finding Your Purpose – A Spiritual Practice Who am I? Why am I here? What is my spiritual contribution to this world? Three very deep questions that if we are honest, every human at one time or another faces. Finding your purpose is an ongoing, ever-evolving spiritual practice and one we will be exploring together on Tending the Holy Thursdays in January. Today let’s look at tips to consider when finding your purpose and ways you might explore to identify your deepest desire. Next week I will share some quotes to ponder then finish the month with some lessons learned as we grow with this practice in our spiritual journey. The Spiritual Practice of Finding Your Purpose – Ten Tips to Test Story: What is your story? If you were to write your life so far, what would you title each chapter? Who are the characters, the settings, the plot, tensions, transitions, turning points, and resolutions? How do you want your story to end? Disney would have the story visualize … [Read more...]
The Church Calendar – What is the Liturgical Year?
The Church Calendar The church I attend follows the church year calendar or the liturgical year. This way of looking at the seasons is a bit different from the January through December block we normally use. What is the Liturgical Year? The church year calendar forms around the events in Jesus’ life. Then we too can center our lives, our worship, our spiritual formation around the lessons learned from walking and talking with Him. I love seeing the colors in worship change with each season of the liturgical year. Purple, white, green, black, red, pink, gold and others decorate the pulpit and altar creating a reflective atmosphere and setting the stage for pondering our God. Happy New Year begins not on January 1st, but on the first Sunday of Advent – the four Sundays before Christmas. Seeing the flow of time through the readings and observances from the Bible creates a powerful environment for worship. The seasons moved from Advent, through Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, … [Read more...]
Tending the Holy Thursdays – The Spiritual Practice of Finding your Purpose
Finding your Purpose “Do you know your purpose?” The clinical psychologist who asked me that question didn’t wait for me to answer. “I think deep down you do.” When I felt the call from God to become an Associate in Ministry (AiM) in our church, one of the many requirements in the early first steps was to participate in a three-day psychological evaluation. My family joked that I would go to Columbus for the test and never return. They laughed that I would be locked up in a mental hospital for the rest of my life. Some days as a mother of three teens and a workaholic hubby, I already felt like my home was the asylum. Love my crazy family, but I digress… In the very helpful discussions with psychologist, I recognized that the work I was doing then at the local health department no longer aligned with what I deeply felt God was inviting me into. What used to match up with my purpose in a previous season, no longer fit. I passed the church’s mental evaluation but left … [Read more...]
Exploring the Human Need to Seek Validation
Seeking Validation Am I ok? How did I do? Have I earned your stamp of approval? A common hunger for most humans is acceptance, validation, approval. I read everywhere “we need to let go of this urge for pleasing others or the requirement for their endorsement for the way we live, act, believe." Let’s discuss and explore this human need to seek validation and what it means to us spiritually. I hear what the experts say: that too much people pleasing leads to not being our true selves or we end up doing things that contradict our values and beliefs or produces overwhelming, life sucking worry. At times, we do focus too much on approval and not what is important or live for someone else at the expense of our own identity. We live in an unhealthy world of approval addiction. I get it. Yet we do all seek validation at times. How good it feels to be affirmed, loved, and accepted for ourselves. If I am completely honest, I deeply desire this validation. I am learning to accept … [Read more...]
Tending the Holy Thursdays –The Spiritual Practice of Reflection –The Yearly Examen
Tending the Holy Thursdays –The Spiritual Practice of Reflection –The Yearly Examen In December, we have explored the spiritual practice of reflection and how that tends the holy within us. You can read the other December posts on Thursdays and how we used reflection on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. Today, being the last day of the year, is very appropriate to ponder the spiritual practice of reflection using the yearly Examen. Remember the spiritual practice of reflection gives meaning to our lives, helps us see God’s presence in the details, grounds us with landmarks on our journey and enables us to let go of what holds us back in life. It’s like hitting the pause button at regular intervals. The Spiritual Practice of Reflection I heard from my doctor this week by email of all things, reminding me it is time for my annual physical checkup. Then I felt the nudge from my heavenly Physician that it was time to examine the past 12 months before I stepped into the … [Read more...]
Questions to Ponder at Year End
Questions to Ponder at Year End This time of year I sit with questions to ponder as one year ends. I ask my soul. I talk with God. I reread and write in my journal. I allow space in my time and my heart to wonder. To listen. To savor and reflect. To allow whispers of possibilities to bubble up. “The key to wisdom is knowing all the right questions.” – John Simone Here are some of the questions I am pondering at year end: What is my why? Why is the deepest core meaning God is inviting me to live into? Why does the word “Joy” (or any word that appears to you for next year) attract me so and how I can live in that word in 2016? How will God stretch me in 2016? And how will I react to his invitation? What do I want to look back upon in one year with a sense of accomplishment and joy? What do I want to learn/see/discover and explore in 2016? What words are calling me to write? If I were to die in the next year, what would be my legacy? How do I want to spend the … [Read more...]
Merry Christmas! 11 Christmas Quotes and Prayers
Take a moment over the busy Christmas days to ponder a few Christmas quotes and prayers. May these words bless your time with God. “What is uncertain is not the ‘coming’ of Christ but our own reception of Him, our own response to Him, our own readiness and capacity to ‘go forth to meet Him.” Thomas Merton When the shopping is over And gifts stashed away When the food has been eaten And the children off to play May one thing remain In your heart and your home May the Christ in Christmas Stay all year long. Author Unknown May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen. by Robert Louis Stevenson Give us, O God, the vision, which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding … [Read more...]
How to Choose a Word for the Year
How do you choose a word for the year? Do you even choose one word for the year? One single word to guide your journey into the next chapter of your life? I am a goal setter. Yes, one of those crazy detailed people who makes lists and exhaustive files of what I want to get done, by when, how much and even my why. I love planning and to be honest, planning is my finest form of procrastination. Perhaps that is why the simplicity of choosing one word appeals to me. One word for the year is straight forward, easy to remember and downright fun. I have learned four things about finding just the right word each year. I call it my SOSS. Surprise: Often it is not of my choosing. The word comes on its own and appears unexpectedly. Towards the end of the year I pay attention to what words resonate within me as I read. Does it seem like I see it everywhere? It pops up in conversations. I begin a small list of potential possibilities (of course I would have a list! LOL) and then pray, … [Read more...]