The Sacred Way

I picked up this little dandy Monday from our lovely bookstore across the street. Hopefully my purchase will allow the Jones family to buy separate jars of peanut butter and jelly instead of that Goober mess. Ever since I stopped doing a conventional "quiet time" a year ago and began to start up reading each morning about 2 months ago, I felt the urge to go deeper with my connection with this mysterious God. Granted I'm not looking to move to a mountain top or shave my head and sit on a pole for the rest of whenever, but I am thirsting for more. As Tony says, "You can listen to innumerable sermons and read countless books, but the true transformation happens only when you practice the disciplines that lie at the heart of faith." These disciplines are a way to bury myself so that God can mold me into his image. I appreciate that Tony invites all to practices these, whether Christian or not.

I'm not new to these practices but haven't given them my full attention. Sure I've dabbled in lectio divina and service and fasting, but I've done it with a mind set tiggered on consume, consume, consume. Even though I know I'll fail, I want to regain my identity in God alone and not let my identity be centered around my job, my possessions, etc. I want to, no I need to experience what St. John of the Cross calls, "the dark night of the soul." So this is a journey I'll embark on not as a pastor, or a councilor, but as a married man who works 8 hours a day and is trying to finish school. A man who will try to find God in the mundane muck of life. A man who will probably fail again and again at being disciplined and focused. A man who deeply wants to loved by God and transformed by him, in order that I may be a better blessing to this world.