I think one of the most significant challenges of our life in Christ is believing that it’s not just a one time event, but a journey. A journey in which we are invited to grow continually. There are many ways in which we walk through this journey. And it often looks and feels a little different for every person. Christians grow in our life in Christ through something called “Spiritual Practices” or “Spiritual Disciplines” or “Contemplative Practices”.

Think of things like intentional times of quiet prayer or yoga or walking a prayer labyrinth or meditation or the liturgy of the hours. These are just a few of possibilities. Check out the Merton Institute or the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society for more examples.

As part of our experience at the Re:Fresh retreat this week, we are practicing and studying many of these disciplines. We are boldly asking each other the question “What’s in your spiritual toolbox?”

One of our teachers, Joe Stabile, offered this as a definition for a Spiritual Discipline. He said, “A Spiritual Discipline is any act habitually entered into with your whole heart as a way of awakening, deepening, and sustaining a contemplative experience of the inherent holiness of the present moment.”

In other words, a Spiritual Discipline is something that we actively enter regularly and through the rhythm of this practice we become more fully aware of God’s holiness and presence in every aspect of our life. Joe explained it is way, “So often we think we need to try and work our way toward some sort of unity with God, when in reality we are already in union with God.”

Spiritual Disciplines don’t require you to set aside several hours each day. And your salvation is not dependent upon whether or not you utilize these tools of faith or are any good at practicing them. But I believe deeply that they help you and me walk through every hour of our day experiencing just how incredible this relationship with God is.

So…what tools are in your Spiritual Toolbox?

Today was a fascinating day. I quickly discovered that trying to describe and fully understand a 3,500+ year old spiritual practice like the Enneagram is not possible. I was hoping that we would just take some sort of test and then spend a few days talking about the results of our test with each other. NOPE!

Our teacher, Suzanne Stabile, said that your Enneagram number is established by the time you are 5, you are fully solidified in this number by the time you are 12. It is part genetic, part environment. And our number is determined by our motivation, not our behavior. Yea, that’s enough to make a person’s head spin just a little. 🙂

Google it and see what I’m discovering this week!
One of the great things I learned today came through this illustration. There are several of us who walk up to a fence that has a bunch of holes in it. We all look through the holes at exactly the same time. We are looking at exactly the same thing, in exactly the same direction. We spend a few minutes looking.

Then we stop looking through the fence and describe what we saw. Remember, we are all looking through the same fence, at the same thing, in the same direction, at exactly the same time. Is our description of what we saw all sound the same?

How could this describe who we are as children of God seeking to follow Jesus? Or, how is does this express a truth about who we are as followers of the risen savior Jesus Christ that may be Methodists or Pentecostals or Roman Catholics or Lutherans or even Baptists? We are all looking through the fence and seeing Jesus, but experiencing our life in Christ in very different ways. But…are they really different?

When you see Jesus, what do you see? I’m thankful to be able to share what we are seeing with each other. My prayer each day is that these experiences are challenging us to grow in relationship with each other and our God through a savior named Jesus Christ. Blessings to you as you peek through the fence today!