CategoriesMentoring Matters, Spiritual Conversation by

The biography of one’s life

Tell me your story

Whether you read novels or prefer Netflix movies, the story is the center of both genres. We could call them the curriculum for those writers. As a good novel unfolds with unexpected twists and surprising turns of a plot, so the biography of one’s life unfolds. Where it will lead is not always clear until more of the story develops.

 

The deepest truth of spirituality is always autobiographical. It is incarnational, lived in the grit of life on Monday and Tuesday, and all the days of the week. “My drifting is consecrated in pilgrimage.”[1] The gentle and probing questions of a mentor draw us to the central action of spirituality: to pay attention for the presence of God in everything.

  Read More

CategoriesSpiritual Conversation by

On the Emmaus Road

A Journey of Revelation

On the other side of Easter, we find ourselves on the Emmaus Road. We get to walk the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus with two disciples who are anything but joyful. Rather, they are downcast, defeated, discouraged, perhaps even feeling betrayed in the midst of their confusion, sorrow, and grief. Jesus is dead. Jesus was crucified. Jesus will never be present again to speak, teach, console, heal, and love them. Hope was shattered for these two who had pinned their hope on Jesus as the Messiah. The long-awaited one they believed was sent from God to redeem Israel and set the world right once again.

 

I’ve never walked that dusty road, but I know Emmaus—the experience of disappointment and unanswered questions. Like you, I have lived in the darkness of what feels like the absence of the living God. I have lived focused, not on hope or Jesus’ declaration about the future, but focused instead on my own emotional sense of loss and disappointment.   Read More

CategoriesMentoring Matters, Spiritual Conversation by

The voice we long for

“I want to hear Jesus’ voice.”  Many years ago, Richard Foster, founder of Renovare’ told us three things prevent us from hearing that voice we long for: noise, hurry, and crowds. In Luke 10, we find a case study of both sides of that dilemma. Martha is a busy host who opens her home to Jesus and never sits down because of her compulsion to be busy. She must have felt obligated to provide a high level of care for her Lord. Mary, on the other hand, remains seated as an attentive student, opening her mind and heart to Jesus’ teaching. “Martha, you are distracted by many things…only one thing is needed.” Read More