As we continue to kick off our new Godspace theme, What does your soul long to do? below is a wonderful post by Britni D’Eliso —
I am not a particularly spontaneous person, much to the chagrin of my Enneagram Type 7 husband. I much prefer to plan, generally a few weeks out in advance, and if I’m feeling a bit reckless, maybe plan for a specific evening to “do something unplanned” (does that count?).
Not only does this often make life with two small children a bit frustrating at times, as their mood swings and bowel movements do not always cooperate with “the plan,” but it also makes for a life where adventure does not come easy. When I fill my schedule with lunch dates and house projects, I’m not often flexible for spur of the moment opportunities that might prompt an exciting venture into the unknown. I can find myself living a fairly quiet, controlled life, which generally suits me just fine.
It does, however, make it difficult to write a blog post about Adventuring.
I have had numerous thrilling experiences throughout my life–while traveling, raising babies, and ministering on city streets; but what I am seeking in this season is how to see adventure in the mundane. Can quiet self-reflection and faithfulness in the small things provide experience that still falls within the category of adventure?
I turned 30 this year, and in honor of transitioning into a new decade, I have committed myself to increased understanding about myself and the way I navigate this world. Though it has been mostly quiet work, interwoven throughout the menial tasks of my work life and home life, it has most certainly been an adventure of discovery and insight. Just as God has handcrafted masterpieces of mountain peaks and endless waves for me to explore in nature, he has intricately woven me together in my mother’s womb. There are endless caverns and meadows and mountaintops within our own internal selves, that he has created within us–begging to be explored.
When meeting with my spiritual director recently, God used her to confirm to me that this work of earnest self-discovery is not only worthwhile, but functions as a form of worship and a spiritual practice. Intentionally seeking out how God created me to engage with others, and how he wired me to uniquely interact with him is a sacred way to honor him and his work in me.
As I plan out our week of grocery trips, daycare and house cleaning, I can be aware of the activity happening within me. I can tune into how my mind makes sense of what is around me and how my heart is pulled and I can see God’s handiwork within each small detail. There is an adventure to be had in the quiet spaces, beneath the surface, and God is inviting us to enter in.
Psalm 139:1-16
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
As we begin our new series, What Does Your Soul Long to Do?, I am posting a second resource list. This one is on discernment. I have really enjoyed revisiting some of these books in the last few weeks and appreciate all who recommended books to add to the list. They are recommended by a diverse group of people and are from very diverse perspectives which I always think enriches and strengthens our faith. Some are about discernment for individuals, others about discernment in groups. If there are other suggestions of “must have” books on discernment there is still time to contribute. Just leave your suggestions in the comments.
- Anderson, Hannah: All That Is Good – The Lost Art of Discernment
- Anderson, Keith: A Spirituality of Listening: Living What We Hear
- Armstrong, Karen: The Spiral Staircase
- Au, Wilkie and Noreen Cannon: The Discerning Heart: Exploring the Christian Path
- Barton, Ruth Haley: Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups
- Bass, Dorothy: Practicing Our Faith
- Breathnach, Sarah Ban: Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life
- Dawn, Marva: Joy in Divine Wisdom: Practices of Discernment from Other Cultures and Christian Traditions (Enduring Questions in Christian Life)
- de Caussade, Jean-Pierre: The Sacrament of the Present Moment
- Dougherty, Rose Mary: Discernment: A Path to Spiritual Awakening
- Farnham, Suzanne G., Hull, Stephanie A., McLean, R. Taylor: Grounded in God, Revised Edition: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations and Listening Hearts: 20th Anniversary Edition – Discerning Call In Community
- Fendall, Wood, and Bishop: Practicing Discernment Together: Finding God’s Way Forward in Decision Making
- Freeman, Emily P.: The Next Right Thing: A Simple Soulful Practice For Making Life Decisions
- Funk, Mary Margaret, OSB: Discernment Matters: Listening with the Ear of the Heart
- Glick , Sally Weaver: In Tune with God: The Art of Congregational Discernment
- Levoy, Gregg Michael: Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life
- Liebert, Elizabeth: The Way of Discernment: Spiritual Practices for Decision Making
- Fryling, Alice: The Art of Spiritual Listening: Responding to God’s Voice Amid the Noise of Life
- Kelly, Thomas: A Testament of Devotion
- Morris, Danny E.: Discerning God’s Will Together: A Spiritual Practice for the Church
- Morgan, Robert: The Red Sea Rules
- Mueller, Joan.: Faithful Listening: Discernment in Everyday Life
- Nouwen, Henri J.M.: The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society and Discernment – Reading the Signs of Daily Life
- Palmer, Parker: Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation and A Hidden Wholeness
- Robb, Susan: Called: Hearing and Responding to God’s Voice
- Sire, James: The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalogue; Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life As A Christian Calling
- Smith, Gordon: The Voice of Jesus: Prayer and the Witness of the Spirit and Listening to God in Times of Choice: The Art of Discerning God’s Will.
- Teresa of Avila: The Life of Teresa of Jesus: The Autobiography of Teresa of Avila
- Tozer, A.W.: God Still Speaks, Are We Listening?
- Townsend-Evans, Colleen: Start Loving: The Miracle of Forgiveness
- Wink, Walter: Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination.
For more books on The Art of Listening, check out this resource list.
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by Christine Sine
It’s time to think of a new Godspace theme. Our Read life differently has provided many inspiring insights and ideas and I appreciate all who have contributed over the last couple of months either through posts or comments. I have even changed some of my own practices as a result, digging into the ideas I suggested in The Gift of Wonder and expanding them as the inspiration of awe and wonder continued to flow. I have shed my shoes and walked barefoot (not quite game enough to try Andy Wade’s idea of a barefoot walk round the neighborhood though). And on the west coast of Vancouver Island my beach combing adventures gained new significance, though now I have a new collection of items I need to find a home for. I would love to hear how this theme or your reading of The Gift of Wonder has changed your thinking, or if it has created a new practice for you too.
Discerning a New Theme.
So how do we come up with a new theme?
This time it all began when I met with our associate rector, Danae Ashley a couple of weeks ago. She was busy putting together discernment circles and asked me to help facilitate them, a privilege that unfortunately is impossible with my present travel schedule. What if we make how do we discern the path ahead? the topic for the next few months I wondered? That thought was especially inspired by this profound quote by Henri Nouwen;
(Discernment) is about listening and responding to that place within us where our deepest desires align with God’s desire. As discerning people, we sift through our impulses , motives, and options to discover which ones lead us closer to divine love and compassion for ourselves and other people and which ones lead further away. (Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life xv)
Hilary, my assistant thought it could be a little restricting, so I started mulling over another theme: what nourishes your soul? Then I came across a sketch that I created a couple of months ago with the words What does your soul long to do? I felt it brought my promptings above into focus as understanding what our soul longs to do requires both discernment and soul care. So what does your soul long to do? is our theme for the next couple of months.
I think that the process that I have gone through to define a theme for the next couple of months is the kind of process that we need to consider in all our decisions and directions. As Nouwen says
while discernment begins in solitude, individual seekers of God always come together in community, for Spirit gathers all believers into one body for accountability mutual support. A person honestly seeking to know God’s will and way will choose to be in community (Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life 13)
Begin in solitude
Frame the question that you want to come to a decision about. (For me – What should our Godspace theme be for the next couple of months?)
Relax into the presence of God and open yourself to listen quietly to the presence and instruction of God.
I found this one of my prayers to be helpful at this early stage of the process:
May my heart beat to the rhythm of eternal breath,
My spirit be filled with the wonder of eternal presence,
My life embrace the joy of eternal love.
May I know the Eternal in me, around me, before and behind me,
And welcome the Triune God into every thought and word and deed.
It was a good prayer to help me center myself on the eternal presence of God as a guide in the decision making process.
Listen to Community
My embrace of community in this decision was a little different from my usual kind of process. I needed to listen not just to the nudges of God rising up from within my spirit but also from the diverse voices around me that formed the community that could help me discern.
On this occasion the community that I needed to embrace was unexpected. Our church leadership is outside my usual circle of community, but as Danae and I talked I realized that God had directed me to her (or her to me to be more accurate) to help me discern the way ahead. Her discernment circles inspired me, but I realized that I needed input from the Godspace community before I “set in concrete” the theme we would use.
One of our writers had suggested soul care or What nourishes your soul to me, and I wanted to be able to incorporate or at least honour that suggestion. And when I talked to Hilary, my assistant, she liked that suggestion too.
Then I came across a doodle I created a couple of months ago with the words What does your soul long to do? on it. That’s it I thought. I ran it by Hilary and she was very enthusiastic. So What does your soul long to do is our theme for the next couple of months. I feel it is a question that requires soul nurture and discernment to answer. God continually seeks to reshape our hearts, our live and our participation in community and that is only possible when we take the time to open ourselves to both discernment and soul nurture.
Set Your Heart in the Right Direction.
To want to know God’s plan and purpose without regular prayer and engagement with scripture and God’s people is like trying to bake a cake without assembling the various ingredients. Discernment grows out of the life of faith rooted in community. (Nouwen 16)
Henri Nouwen’s book is such a valuable resource that in some ways I don’t feel I need any others except for the Bible, but here too I realize that a “community” of books and diverse opinions are helpful. So I have pulled out my books on spiritual direction, soul care and discernment. I have asked Facebook friends for their suggestions too. I like to involve as broad and diverse a community as possible so that each of us has the opportunity to discern what God is saying to us, as our spirits are nurtured and strengthened by our own study and our interactions with community.
Last week I reposted an updated version of our Spiritual Direction reading list. Tomorrow I will post one on Discernment. Next week hopefully another on soul care will be added. If you have suggestions for any of these lists let me know.
So my question for today is: What are you doing for soul care and discernment at this season of your life?
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By Lilly Lewin
August tends to be a month of transition for me and my family. School starts, people move, seasons baby step into changing. My facebook feed reminded me this morning that nine years ago today, my life was starting over in Napa Valley California as my husband started culinary school. That was a large change and a big transition. And five years ago in August, we were deciding where to live again after my cancer surgery. My son is making the big move this year, rather than myself. I almost stayed in Denver a bit longer just to escape the humidity of the extreme August temps in Nashville. But reality called and friends were moving on to new adventures and I wanted to be a part of saying farewell. So last Sunday, we bid farewell to a dear member of thinplaceNASHVILLE who is moving to Florida. This was a great opportunity for all of us to practice Laying Down and Letting Go and starting again in a new season of life and living. We all have things that we need to let go of in order to move forward and in order to make a fresh start into a new season of life.
What about you? What transitions or changes are taking place in your life right now?
What are the burdens weighing you down?
What are the things that seem to block your way?
Are there old things that need to be left behind in order to receive something new?
Write these down on a piece of paper.
There is a great liturgy of Laying Down and Letting Go in the Northumbria Community Celtic Daily Prayer Book Two: Farther Up and Further In pages 1041-1043
Here’s a part of this liturgy we used on Sunday night: hold your paper and pray this prayer.
Nothing I jealously guard is mine.
Nothing I freely give up is ever lost.
God who is both Alpha and Omega, be with me in the letting go.
Christ who is the First and Last, be with me in the laying down.
Spirit of all my journeying, be with me in the moving on.
The Sacred Three grant me thankfulness, as I rejoice in what has been well done;
I receive forgiveness, as I confess where I have fallen short;
I receive serenity, as I live with what remains incomplete or unresolved.
I begin to trust as I go to meet what lies ahead.
God behind me; God beside me; God before me. In Every season. Amen.
( adapted from p. 1042-1043 Celtic Daily Prayer)
I set up a small fire pit on our deck and I used a jar candle in the bottom to help with the burning of our burdens and of the things we needed to let go and lay down. We all burned our burden papers in the fire pit.
I used a HOPE candle from thistlefarms in the base of the fire pit for a couple of reasons. First, there is always HOPE when we give our burdens and barriers to Jesus, and NOTHING is too big for Jesus to carry or handle for us. Second, it provdied a different smell, scent than just burning paper. I wanted the scent to linger and go with us as we left the ritual.
The second part of our evening included receiving a new word to carry with us. I cut out pages and created cards from A Colorful Life Journal and put them in a basket to choose from. I knew the Holy Spirit would pick the word, phrase or quote that each of us needed in this next season. You can create your own cards with quotes or phrases or verses and have members of your community choose one to carry with them as their word of HOPE for the next season. 
Take some time this weekend to consider the season and the changes happening in your world. Talk to Jesus about where you are and where you’d like to be in the days ahead. Burn the old and receive the new. Let the heavy things be melted away into ash. Receive Beauty for Ashes. And let the scent of hope rise up bring you new life, new vision and new purpose. And remember the prayer from Celtic Daily Prayer volume 2
Through every season, God is my trusted friend, Through all of Life my Faithful Guide.
God behind me. God beside me. God before me. AMEN
by Christine Sine
As we end this series on Read Life Differently, I wanted to do so with this prayer which I wrote about 5 years ago. It is a good reminder that to move forward into God’s purposes we need grow together across our differences, and the only way that is possible is with love.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
Let us grow together
and build up the body of Christ.
Let us accept the gift of Jesus
Revealed in ourselves, in others and in our world.
Allow him to nourish
not soul alone
But body and spirit and community.
Let us invite him into our deepest being
Open ourselves to his equipping
Freely sharing what we receive.
Let our gifts ripple outwards
Shared with great love and mercy and generosity.
Let them lead us to a life
Worthy of the purpose
To which we are called
To love God and our neighbor as ourselves.
Grow, be equipped, give generously
Build up the body of Christ.
(Christine Sine August 2015)
In preparation for our new theme starting next week – What Does Your Soul Long To Do? I have updated our reading list on spiritual direction, an essential part of preparing our souls for the journey ahead. A big thank you to my Facebook friends who helped revise this list, adding new suggestions to the list that we first published in 2014.
Once again I am indebted to Terry Clees who provided me with the bibliography for her dissertation and to so many others who contributed. I asked for out of the box suggestions and appreciate the rich variety of these – from books and websites on the traditional spiritual direction to children’s books, liberation theologians and postmodern thinkers. As you can imagine this is not a comprehensive list but hopefully it gives all of us a place to start, no matter what our faith perspective.
I have not personally read all these books, but may go broke acquiring the new books it has added to my reading list. Where possible I have also included a review of the book especially if it is not one that I am familiar with. If you know have reviewed one of these books or have others to add to the list please leave a comment below. Enjoy – we are always working to improve these lists!
Books
Addison, Howard A., and Barbara Eve. Breitman. Jewish Spiritual Direction: An Innovative Guide from Traditional and Contemporary Sources. And check out the publisher’s website: Jewish Lights Publishers
Bakke, Jeannette A. Holy Invitations: Exploring Spiritual Direction. Check out this article, “Making Space for God” on Christianity Today.
Barry, William Francis, and William J. Connolly. The Practice of Spiritual Direction.
Brenner David G. Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship and Direction .
Bowen, Sarah Spiritual Rebel
Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God.
Demacopoulos, George E., Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.
Geunther, Margaret, Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction.
Hart Thomas N., The Art of Christian Listening.
Keating, Thomas. Foundations for Centering Prayer and the Christian Contemplative Life: Open Mind, Open Heart ; Invitation to Love ; The Mystery of Christ. This is an anthology of three of Keating’s most inspirational works.
Kurtz, Ernest and Katherine Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning or check out this review.
Leech, Kenneth. Soul Friend: Spiritual Direction in the Modern World.
Linn Dennis, Sheila Fabricant Linn, Matthew Linn. Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life.
May, Gerald G. The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection between Darkness and Spiritual Growth. And check out this review.
McLaren, Brian D. Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words. Check out this book review.
Merton, Thomas. The Seven Storey Mountain
Nouwen, Henri J. M., Michael J. Christensen, and Rebecca Laird. Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith.
Palmer, Parker, A Hidden Wholeness, Check out my review.
Peterson, Eugene H. The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction. Check out this review
Phillips Susan S, Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction.
Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Read this review.
Thompson, Marjorie J. Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. Check out my review.
Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers.
Valters Paintner, Christine. Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction. Read this review.
Websites
Spiritual Direction – Ignatian Spirituality
Spiritual Directors International.
The National Association for Christian Recovery
Shalem Institute – Spiritual Guidance Program
Note: As an Amazon Affiliate I receive a small amount for purchases made though the links above. Thank you for helping support Godspace in this way.
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!