Companions for the Journey

I love this painting of the Emmaus Road. Two friends walking together down the path 

of life with Jesus beside them. Who is companioning you on your journey?

    Some will answer that question by saying Jesus is their companion. Others will reply besides Jesus, they share their faith stories with family and friends. In addition, others grow by speaking with a spiritual director.

     In my program to become a spiritual director we had the assignment to pick someone from history, a spiritual giant, to study with for two years. There is so much we can learn from studying others who came before us. 

     I am not a fan of the word “spiritual giants” since these people are humans with weaknesses, difficulties and even poor decision making. Saints were not super humans, but in reality they were flawed and sinful just like us. But somehow they kept running that race; their lives reflect what we wish for, what we desire most deeply and the direction in which we are headed in life. They can be mentors for us. They can teach us.

      I chose Dorothy Day. Others in my group learned about St Augustine, Martin Luther, Julia of Norwich, Catherine of Sienna, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, EvelynUnderhill and John Wesley.

      We read about them and studied to find out how they grew spiritually, what their view of God was, how did they pray, and  how did they grow. What did they write? What did others say about them? How did they hear God? How did they know God’s will? What mistakes did they make? Who influence them? Whom did they influence?

     My challenge to you is to seek to find someone this year and dig deeply into their life and their faith journey. Read about them. Find out how they grew spiritually. Do an internet search about their life. Develop an expertise on that person.

     We become what we focus on. Who you are journeying with can help you grow and teach you how to focus on Jesus. They can help us become transformed into the people God called us to be.

   Hebrews chapter 12 tells us we have cheerleaders in life. A great cloud of witnesses, those who have gone before us, encourage us on our journey. We can learn much from their lives of faith.

   Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. Hebrew 12:1

 

 Who will you invite this year to walk with you on your journey?

NURTURE

Nurture is one of my core words. Core words describe a movement, an identity, and something deep within our DNA that drives all of our passions and needs. We spend a lifetime searching for these core words and it is an adventure to explore and discover them.

 

In 2009 I finally was able to put a label a deep part of my soul: nurture. As a young child I knew I wanted to be a writer. As a daughter of a physician, I was often asked, “Do you want to be nurse when you grow up?”  “No!” I would emphatically say with a stomp of my foot.

 

When I was 16, I heard God clearly calling me to be a nurse and I have never regretted following that vocation. I buried my first call to write, though across my adult years I dabbled in speaking and writing. I do believe I followed God on the path He wanted me to go in health care. Yet I always thought the two were separate until this year.

 

Two years I retired from fulltime public health nursing and God began opening doors once again for writing and speaking. Through prayer, spiritual direction and journaling, I discerned a new call to nurture others into the wonder of God. I clarified this to mean to help others know God more, to love God more and to see him in all things. My calling was to work in spiritual formation – facilitating the journey of other pilgrims to reflect and respond to God’s spirit within them - nurturing others to pay attention to God’s deep desire to build a closer relationship.

 

Nurture evolved into my core word for writing, speaking and spiritual direction.

 

Again I thought I was moving into a new chapter of my life when I amazingly discovered the word NURSE has the same root word as nurture.  Latin for nurse is nutrire or to nourish or nurture. Wow. My two separate life journeys merged onto the same path. God buried the seed of nurture deep within my soul and He nursed it throughout my life.

 

Isn’t God astonishing?  The gift of discovering two aspects of my life blending together into a surprising combination refreshed my soul.

 

What is your story and your core word?  Discovering this deep essence takes a lifetime but the process leads to healthy spirituality. Dig deeper!

Healthy Spirituality

    A healthy person works out every day to keep the body in shape . . .but a spiritually healthy person kneels in prayer to keep the soul in shape.

   Healthy people have faith, hope and love that they are strong enough for the journey . . . but spiritual healthy people have faith, hope and love that it is in the journey that they will become strong.

 

Welcome to Healthy Spirituality. My hope for this blog is that the words nurture you closer to God and help you discover his wonder and his unconditional love he has for you.

 

Healthy spirituality can be defined in many different ways. For me and this blog, it is the sense of wholeness only possible through a relationship with God. We are never complete without him and He continually pursues us to draw us back to him.

 

The foundation of spiritual health always is in prayer – listening and talking with God. Another component is paying attention to and learning God’s word. Studying the stories God gave us in the Bible and most importantly, studying the life of his son, Jesus, gives us guidance and discernment on our walk in life.

 

And we can’t forget our own story. I believe God has planted deep within our soul, a story, our core essence, created by him, unique only to us. Our journey on earth as humans is to discover and sing that song God has placed within us.

 

     “We had thought that we were human beings making a spiritual journey; it may be truer to say that we are spiritual beings making a human journey.’ (Teilhard deChardin)