The soul that is united and transformed in God breathes God in God with the same divine breathing with which God, while in her, breathes her in himself.
~St. John of the Cross, quoted in Martin Laird, Into The Silent Land (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 37.
Something beautiful about Christianity is its paradox of simplicity and depth. It is accessible to nearly everyone. That is, almost anyone can learn to understand the heart of Christianity. Yet, we encounter its profound depths as we discover the infinite nature of the Trinity’s heart.
We are a husband-and-wife team who are both storytellers, creatives, and analytical. For years, we have sensed that one day God would use our combined skills for God's kingdom in the world. This website and podcast are the realization of that, or at least the beginning of our professional partnership anyway.
Welcome to the Season 2 season finale of Fiction that Forms us!
How do we become more receptive and responsive to the work of the Spirit within our lives? In her first novel, Sensible Shoes, from the series of the same name, Sharon Garlough Brown takes her characters on a journey of practicing various spiritual disciplines. In this episode, I talk to author Sharon Garlough Brown about the spiritual disciplines of lament and confession within the Ignatian Examen. The spiritual practice is one of attentiveness that enables our receptivity by reviewing our day with God in two movements: consolation—where we noticed and responded to God today—and desolation—where we were unaware of, ignored, or rejected God during our day.
Klyne Snodgrass begins his book Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity with this provocative statement: “There is only one question: Who are you? Everything else in life flows from that one question.” It’s true that who we are determines what we think about, how we feel in response to things, how we act, and even our belief about God’s identity. A. W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
I've had ample opportunity to practice Welcoming Prayer. A few months ago, I sinned against a friend, unintentionally hurting her. As sin often does, it propagated. Losing her friendship wasn’t the worst of it. Unfortunately, the ripples spread to our children.
I’ll be honest. When I first learned about welcoming prayer, it sounded like a New Age philosophy to me. I imagine my initial resistance was similar to those who think that spiritual disciplines and spiritual formation aren’t Christian but rather some sort of Eastern philosophy.
