RevGal Friday 5: Spring Cleaning Edition
Sally writes:
I don't know about a spring-clean but that sense of spring growth and renewal--absolutely! After my interviews on Monday with BOM I can't help but think that I need to delve deeper into my prayer life and relationship with the Holy Spirit.
2. Spiritual disciplines- life-giving/ terrifying: discuss
Life-giving definately! I say that and yet I definately need to work on being more disciplined with my spiritual disciplines. For the past 2 years I've said I wanted to start fasting on a weekly basis but it hasn't actually happened because I keep looking for the "best" day of the week to do it--you know, when it won't be "hard." Sometimes I can't believe that I'm the pastor and I can be the dimmest bulb in the room at times! I have been suprised by how spiritual and life-giving tithing has become. I never imagined how it could really be spiritual but it totally is!
3. Share a practice that keeps you spiritually alive that you think others might benefit from...
Hmmm....the most suprising has been tithing. It was a difficult process but now it is almost automatic. During the transition to tithing I was constantly amazed by how we were able to pay the rest of our bills. It was absolutely affirming in that just when I thought there was no way we'd be able to tithe that month or two weeks but we were--it seemed as though God always pulled us through. It reminded and continues to remind us that God does provide.
4.Alone or together, how do you pray best?
Pray best? I don't know about best but I love to pray in silence. When I am the one to pray out loud for a group I lose my words. That said, I love holding someone's hand or feeling their hand on my shoulder as we pray together--there's nothing quite like it, especially when I'm blessed to be praying with someone who does have the gift of praying out loud.
5.If your spiritual life were to burgeon and bloom into a spring flower what would it be and why?
It would bloom into a lotus flower that grows out of the muck and mire and into a beautiful flower. Life can be hard and ugly and yet God's love blooms and grows through the brokeness and sin that surrounds us.
Bonus, a piece of music a picture or a prayer that speaks to you of new life....
This is a big bummer but I can't find my favorite painting right now and I need to go get my girls ready for school and myself ready for the World Day of Prayer Service. I'll look later when I have more time.
Peace be with you!
I have been thinking about spring, although it is still ver cold here the snow has almost gone and the sun is shining. Here and there spring bulbs are bravely pushing their way through the earth and Tim and I are thinking about planting the first of the years veggies in the garden!
Then I read: The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you. (2 Corninthians 5: 17-20 The Message)
All this got me thinking that if we traditionally think of spring as a time for new life, then maybe a spiritual spring clean might not be a bad thing to clear the way for the new thing that God wants to do in us!
So with all of that in mind I offer you this Friday Five:1. Is there a part of your spiritual life that is dry and dusty at the moment, something that could do with a good spring clean?
I don't know about a spring-clean but that sense of spring growth and renewal--absolutely! After my interviews on Monday with BOM I can't help but think that I need to delve deeper into my prayer life and relationship with the Holy Spirit.
2. Spiritual disciplines- life-giving/ terrifying: discuss
Life-giving definately! I say that and yet I definately need to work on being more disciplined with my spiritual disciplines. For the past 2 years I've said I wanted to start fasting on a weekly basis but it hasn't actually happened because I keep looking for the "best" day of the week to do it--you know, when it won't be "hard." Sometimes I can't believe that I'm the pastor and I can be the dimmest bulb in the room at times! I have been suprised by how spiritual and life-giving tithing has become. I never imagined how it could really be spiritual but it totally is!
3. Share a practice that keeps you spiritually alive that you think others might benefit from...
Hmmm....the most suprising has been tithing. It was a difficult process but now it is almost automatic. During the transition to tithing I was constantly amazed by how we were able to pay the rest of our bills. It was absolutely affirming in that just when I thought there was no way we'd be able to tithe that month or two weeks but we were--it seemed as though God always pulled us through. It reminded and continues to remind us that God does provide.
4.Alone or together, how do you pray best?
Pray best? I don't know about best but I love to pray in silence. When I am the one to pray out loud for a group I lose my words. That said, I love holding someone's hand or feeling their hand on my shoulder as we pray together--there's nothing quite like it, especially when I'm blessed to be praying with someone who does have the gift of praying out loud.
5.If your spiritual life were to burgeon and bloom into a spring flower what would it be and why?
It would bloom into a lotus flower that grows out of the muck and mire and into a beautiful flower. Life can be hard and ugly and yet God's love blooms and grows through the brokeness and sin that surrounds us.
Bonus, a piece of music a picture or a prayer that speaks to you of new life....
This is a big bummer but I can't find my favorite painting right now and I need to go get my girls ready for school and myself ready for the World Day of Prayer Service. I'll look later when I have more time.
Peace be with you!
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