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Week Six: Self-Care.
During this season of Lent, a time when I’m especially drawn to thinking about the incarnated suffering of Christ, I’ve also thought of the way I view my own body. I’ve realized that for much of my Christian life, I’ve somewhat functioned as a gnostic – believing that while my spirit can be good (because…
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Week Five: Welcoming Prayer.
It’s Week Five of practicing a new spiritual discipline, something Adele Calhoun calls ‘Welcoming Prayer.’ And let me tell you, this has been a sweet and dear practice. Stained glass at a local Anglican church. To me, it’s a reminder of the precious moment Mary said “Welcome, Jesus, welcome.” So, overview: “Desire: to welcome Jesus…
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Week Four: Silence (Again).
Welp, as promised in last week’s post, I’ve sought to practice the spiritual discipline of silence this week…again. While I had a good dose of resolve heading into this week, practicing silence was much more difficult than I had anticipated. And honestly, more times than not, I ran from it again and again; this tendency in…
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Week Three: Silence.
This week, I chose to practice the spiritual discipline of silence, though I did not do very well at it. Let’s just say that I realized how *radically* tied I am to any kind of noise – from my Spotify playlists to the whirring sound of the fan in my room. Goodness, I’m even writing…
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Week Two: Gratitude.
“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 118:1, ESV) My 2.5 year old plant, the little bit of green in my room I ever treasure. For this week, I’ve practiced the spiritual discipline of gratitude. Though I wish gratitude was my default mode, I too…
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Week One: Visio Divina.
To start off my ‘Journey with the Spiritual Disciplines,’ I thought I’d flip through the Table of Contents in Calhoun’s Spiritual Disciplines Handbook to see which disciplines stood out to me. After making a list of about twenty, I asked myself, “Which would be a fun one to start with?” I read some of the descriptions, then…
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A Journey with the Spiritual Disciplines.
Before I begin, I’d like to thank my dear friend and mentor, Diane Awbrey, for encouraging me two years ago to venture on this blog project. As you may know, I’ve been a student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary the past year and half, with one more semester until I graduate with an M.A. in Spiritual Formation. …
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Facing Fear in the Concrete.
I’m fairly comfortable with things in theory. For example, in theory, fish is good for me and is tasty; in practice, I can’t get myself to swallow the slimy meat or purchase Omega-3 supplements. In theory, I could stop drinking coffee at the drop of a hat, but in practice, I’d get awful withdrawal headaches…
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The Cruciform Life.
One book that’s been particularly formational for me the past three summers is Ian Morgan Cron’s Chasing Francis. This book is the only novel I’ve ever re-read, and reading it truly is – in the words of Jo March – like “being home again.” I don’t want to spoil any elements of this book for…
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Affirming Dignity.
Already, I could write so much about my experience of being a chaplain in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) for the past seven weeks. I hope that in the days and weeks ahead, I can share what’s been percolating in my heart. For now, though, what’s been brewing (might as well extend the coffee metaphor, right?)…
Reflections: Writing about life’s transitions & God’s presence at all the stopping places.
Reflections 