Dear Friend,
Last week, I shared with you a vision to help create your own personal Rule of Life. A Rule of Life is “a commitment to live your life in a particular way. It is meant to be crafted with prayer and discernment, in partnership with God, as you consider the way God made you and the values God has inscribed upon your heart. Once written, it serves as a tool that can help you make decisions for your life and determine how best to order your days.”
This week, we are studying Matthew 3:1-12, in which John the Baptist dramatically appears in the wilderness in Judea shouting “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
Repentance is a challenge for us, because the first thing it asks us to do is admit that we were wrong.
To be clear, admitting we are wrong is different than deciding that we are bad. We can make the wrong decision and this does not make us bad people. This is the gift of repentance: admitting that we are wrong, first, so that we can adjust how we move forward with our behavior and decision-making.
The challenge in John the Baptist’s words has always been this call to confession, because it conjues up such feelings of guilt and shame. This is natural, and is the first step in changing how we move ahead, working to align our lives with God’s intention for us. The next step is the real work of repentance: changing course.
We cannot effectively change course if we do not yet know where we’re heading. The Weekly Examen is a spiritual practice which can help you organize your thoughts about your current state of being, and consider what changes could and should be made to align your life with God’s vision for you: to be a whole, loved, compassionate person. The Prophet Isaiah in 11:1-10 details God’s vision for creation, in which the wolf lays down with the lamb, and a nursing child plays over the hole of an asp. This vivid imagery of the vulnerable abiding safely with the dangerous helps us to see that God’s intention for the world was one of peace. I believe that God hopes the same for us, individually: peace.
This week, I invite you to use the pracice of Weekly Examen to reflect and reset the following aspects of your life (there is a helpful chart from Sacred Ordinary Days, below, to help you organize your thoughts this week):
Spirit | Body | Mind | Relationships | Home | Work | Resources
As we begin to write our own personal Rule of Life, take time today to consider how you are feeling about each area. Devote time to prayer first, to clear your head and open your heart, becoming aware of the Spriit’s presence in your life.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” - Annie Dillard
It is an honor to be your pastor, now and always.
Blessings,
Mandy