Grow As You Go - Episode 6

So I want to encourage anybody that's listening or watching today.

Uh, if you're finding it difficult to have a time with God, start small, start specific in a sacred space with a single focus.

Don't make it too big, make it bite-sized.

If you can read one chapter of the Bible, start there, realizing that all of this is about us spending time with our Heavenly Father.

Well, hey everyone.

Welcome to The Conversation.

My name's Tommy Brown.

I'm your host.

I'm the host.

Come on, I'm your host.

Let's go.

The hostess with the mostess.

Uh I'm your host.

Yeah, not hostess.

No, it's different.

Okay, it's true.

That's right.

Hi, Sheena.

Hi.

Hello.

This is our friend Sheena.

Sheena, you are one of the elders at our church.

You're also a trained spiritual director.

We need to talk about what that means at some point during today's podcast.

Okay.

Because it's it's a really strange title for a really amazing thing.

Yeah.

What is a spiritual director?

Let's just talk about it now.

Really?

I we actually none of us in the community like being called spiritual directors.

This is a community.

It's a cult.

Now uh the whole community, we don't actually like the name spiritual director.

You know, Holy Spirit is a spiritual director.

Yeah.

And so we are just in tune with the Holy Spirit and sitting um in that tension with the person we're with.

And so we when we say director, it doesn't feel like that.

We're not a coach, we're not a director.

You're a friend.

Yeah, we're a friend.

We're a sacred companion on the journey.

And that's what we prefer.

But then when you say that, that feels a little different.

That can mean a lot of things.

Yeah, in the long run.

Yeah, don't, don't.

Or we've been called.

It reminds me of like the temple prostitute.

It's just a sacred companion.

We're already on the right.

We are.

Thank you, Tommy.

It's been great.

Thanks for listening today, everybody.

It's wonderful.

Shut it down off too.

Hey, Nathan.

Yes, I'll bring some order back to this.

One of my sacred companions.

Exactly.

Come on, let's go, Nathan.

That's right.

Happy to be here today again.

You're a worship pastor and uh welcome to the conversation today.

Yeah.

All right.

Here's what I want to talk about.

Okay.

I want to talk about how to have a time with God.

How does a person have a time with God?

Now there are some people who may hear that and they're like, I know how to have a time with God.

Maybe, maybe you do, but I'm always learning like, how can I bring my full self to my time with God so that I can deepen the relationship with God.

So I actually have some thoughts.

I never have notes for these things.

I actually have some notes.

And so what I wanted to do was say some things out loud, hear how these things resonate with you all, and let's have a conversation about how to have a time with God.

So here's here's an opening thought.

You ready for this?

A time with God is not an appointment we keep to earn God's approval, it is a rhythm through which we become attentive to God's presence, honest about our lives, receptive to Scripture, and responsive in obedience.

Does anything in that resonate with you guys at all?

I mean, it does, and it actually blesses me to hear you say that because the challenge that I find lately is having two small children, which is the greatest gift and joy.

But man, it may be the greatest inhibitory.

And I I I already have a hard time slowing down and focusing anyway, that's because of how my brain is wired.

So it's uh I find myself feeling more scattered at times in those types of desire, those kinds of moments, and wanting to find those moments.

And so I can be hard on myself of like, man, I'm not finding those times.

But I do feel like even here you said that the Lord is reminding me that, like, listen, it doesn't have to be this whole everything's quiet and find the corner, although I love those moments as well.

But like driving in the car, I have some time.

Like, Lord, I spend some time with you.

Like, you know, I know you already know what's on my heart, but let me just download some of these things to you and just sit in the quiet, put on a worship song and just listen and just try to really align my heart with what you're wanting to do, what you're wanting to say to me, through me, and this day, even just in this day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So um I like that a lot.

That's good.

What about you, spiritual directors?

Can I say, can I say as if I if I was in a session with you, what I would say to your busyness?

Yeah, for your children.

And so I can reference um a season with a lot of my people that say, My children are interrupting me constantly.

And those are beautiful interruptions.

So if we if we look at our children and we look at our household and those interruptions that God is still working through them, and if you think of him embodying your children, how what would it look like when your kid comes after you running for a hug?

It's the Lord saying, I just wanted to see how it felt to hug you.

Oh, they're one of your kids.

Right?

That's funny.

Right?

And so I just I just want you to to come play dinosaurs with me.

What if God was saying, like, I'm using your children when they're crawled up in your lap or playing dinosaurs?

I actually wanted to know what it felt like to be a child your child.

I love that.

That is what does that look like?

Can we talk about Mosey for just a second?

Yeah.

So little Mosey.

Little Mosey.

Okay.

Oh wow.

So Mosey said something the other day, and you guys got it on camera.

Yeah.

Can you talk about that for just a minute?

Yeah.

He can make us all cry.

Uh so our son Moses, seven years old, uh, is nonverbal, uh autistic.

Uh, and so it's just been such a journey with him just watching him develop and trying to f find different ways and different therapies just to help him break through every way that we can.

Um, and just praying and believing that the gods is to continue to unlock things in his mind, unlock things in his development.

But um one thing the other day, Brittany was with him, and he does a good job at times, like kind of like echoing things.

So he'll see something in a video that he's watching, like a veggie tail video, and he'll say something, but very usually it's just like you can tell he's just repeating something.

He's not really saying it at to you or at you.

But um Brittany was just holding him and she was just saying, I love you so much to him.

And he just looked back at her and said, I love you so much.

And something so simple, but it was, I mean, and then she's like, I gotta get him to do it again.

So then she's like, I love you so much.

And he's kind of just squirming, and she's like, Moses, I and he said it again.

And it was like, oh, it was so beautiful.

So that I couldn't wait to get home.

Like, I want to try.

I want to didn't say it for me.

And I was like, Oh, and I was like, it's okay, but and then one day, a couple days later, I was holding he likes me to pick him up and spin him around.

Yeah, he'll do like a countdown.

He'll go like one, I'll go one, he'll go two, three, and then he wants me to spin them and he loves it, and I'm spinning them and we're laughing, and then he just is giggling, he looks at me and goes, I love you so much.

And I was like, Oh my gosh.

It's like, oh, son, I love you so much.

So if we if we pick up on what Sheena was saying a minute ago, that even these even these interruptions, even these spinning around of your seven-year-olds, you know, God is always communicating to us, and sometimes it's through the people that uh are closest to us.

So I want to hold that intention with this idea that I am experiencing and encountering God throughout my day.

It's God in the ordinary, God in the mundane, God while I work and whistle and write and play.

Right.

I also want to say I think that we cultivate the ability to pay attention in the everyday moments by learning to pay attention in intentional focused moments.

Yeah.

Does that it does?

Does that resonate?

Makes perfect sense.

Okay, so it's not one or the other.

Right.

No.

Um and I like you, I I live a very fast-paced life, and carving out time for me is not easy, but I think that it is a vital part of our lives.

I think the carved out time is what helps us pay attention in the random things.

Well, it's sacrificial.

I mean, you're sacrificing that uh need to go and do and be, and yes, God's with us, but you're having to set aside that.

I mean, so how do we do that?

Okay.

Yeah so I'm gonna throw out a few thoughts.

Okay.

All right, so I always start.

If you've heard me say this before, it's because I always say it, it's because it's the best thing I've ever heard about it.

So there is a um an author, a pastor named Henry Nowen.

He's actually Dutch, and so whenever we're hanging out, I'll come on remote.

And so you say Henry, you're like eye roll, yeah.

Yeah, come on.

You know, the real OGs know.

And so he's he's now deceased.

He's he's a sweet little man, and uh just a just a saint uh in the tradition.

And so now and says that what you need are the three S's.

You need a specific time, you need a single focus, and you need a sacred space.

So I'm gonna unpack each of those and I want to hear from you uh what resonates about that.

Maybe you'll let us in a little bit into if you have some of those active in your life.

So the specific time, your body craves routine, your body craves rip rhythm and discipline.

And so for me, um, if I'm going to go to the gym, I don't decide every day what time I'm gonna go to the gym.

No, I'm gonna go to the gym at this time.

And this this time is set aside just for gym stuff.

Not paying bills at the gym, I'm not cooking at the gym, I'm just gymming at the gym, right?

Gym.

So specific time.

Gymming.

It's a verb.

It's a verb, right?

So we need a specific time with God.

We need an appointment with God.

We can put it on our calendar.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Then we need a single focus.

So when I come to this time, I know what I'm going to do.

So I know in my Bible what I'm gonna read.

If I'm gonna read another like spiritual book with it, uh, and then I'm gonna journal.

So I have I I have a focus, and then I have a sacred space, and that's just any place to where you feel at ease, you like it, you're like, hmm, this is this is cozy, this is good, this is quiet.

You know, quiet can be hard to find sometimes.

But that's why the specific time is important.

Right.

Maybe it's late at night, maybe it's early in the morning.

Um, so for me, what I find is getting up early before the rest of the house gets up.

I get up, I hit go on the coffee maker, wait for the coffee to brew, go in there, tidy up my desk a little bit.

I get my coffee, I sit down in my chair at my desk, I put my earbuds in, I have a song that I'm gonna listen to, something that's not gonna distract me.

You can fire up a candle, and I know right where I'm going to read in my Bible.

So we can talk about Bible plans and those types of things.

But that's that for me would be a specific time, a single focus, and a sacred space.

Now, for some people, they don't have a study they can go to.

They may have a a couch or a chair, or maybe it's a dining room table, or you know, maybe they drive to work and there's a park on the way to work, and then they go sit at the park for a few minutes and what have you.

So what comes up for you in that?

Is that doable?

Is that just a pipe dream?

What do you what do you what do you think about that?

I think it really depends on the season I'm in.

In the moment, my season of transition is I've got a lot going on with my household and the kids getting back in school.

So I'm finding a new uh rhythm which can be so it changes over time.

Oh, it has to.

And I think people get stuck and thinking it has to look like the way it did the last season.

That's right.

And it doesn't need to, and then you get defeated, and then you don't even attempt to do anything.

Right.

And so right now, what I find is no matter what though, whatever season I'm in, finding a time in the morning and finding a time in the evening.

And that's usually before people are awake.

And so if, like, say this morning what I did, I'll just just tell you what I did.

I'm getting ready and I didn't have the time that I needed, but I literally, this is what I do.

It's in my room, it's in my sacred space to the side.

I am on my face and I am praying and I am seeking the Lord.

And I have certain things that I am praying over in the moment in this season.

Do you have like a list?

I do in my head.

Oh, it's in your head.

It's in my head, and it's but it's always give me eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to receive.

Break my heart for what breaks yours.

When you pray, do you start with the room?

What does that look like?

Your family or your how do you think?

No, it's just the first thing that I just need to get off my heart that's been bothering me.

Yeah, and then I'll go into that in the rhythm.

And then the evening, no matter what, this is my rhythm in prayer, is that's the same thing I'll do.

I'll go this is what I tell my my people as well, that I at my directees go throughout your day and sit even if it's in bed, wherever it is, or your Bible study, and what are the things, Lord, what was I not attuned to?

You know, what were you trying to tell me?

Or hey, I saw this.

What is that called?

What's the word?

Ignatius, it's Ignatius prayer, but the I guess of the day of I don't know, I have to think about what that is.

I know, I know it's such an easy one.

Robbie would know.

It's an easy one, I know this.

It is.

I know it's just that Ignatius has one where you go through it and it's your and I and I just say, Okay, Lord, where have I where did I miss you?

Where did I see you?

What can I work through?

Where was you know, I obedient in and what and then that's when I when I I liked it when you said or watching how the day unfolds, it helps me be attuned to did I miss something and not miss something in the way of like guilt or shame in that, but like, oh okay, so tomorrow I'm gonna approach this differently.

Or that conversation was actually deeper than I thought it was.

I need to revisit that.

So those are my rhythms right now.

And then of course I incorporate Bible reading, any type of devotion in that way.

But yeah, that's you've gotta figure out, like you said, what you're gonna do and how it's gonna it's gonna look different in every season.

I I love this, I love this conversation because it really I I already have been feeling just so strongly and sensing like the importance of the of the dynamic of both of these, both of what we're saying, both the God in the every in the every day, in the every moment.

You I think you said something recently that I've heard before that I love.

It's like I don't usually pray for 30 minutes, yeah, but I usually don't go more than 30 minutes without praying.

Right.

So that thought of like constantly throughout the day, but then also I that that's like that part, like, okay, yeah, I I got that.

It's but I feel it in my spirit, even just this, it has to be both.

Yeah.

And so when I feel the other side of that just not happening because of life and different things, I feel that.

I feel that in my spirit.

And you know, one thing you even when we were talking about the the kids a moment ago, I did start thinking about those some of the moments that that Britney and I both, either together or even on our own with our kids, have intentionally to like when I put Hattie down to bed at night, we always pray.

It's just her and I, and it's she's so cute.

I say, she's so good at praying.

We did not teach her how to pray.

I mean, she's watched us, but like this girl just Yes, you did.

Well, yes, we did.

Okay, I'm sorry.

But the cool thing, what I'm trying to say is though, is we didn't have to be like, here's how you pray.

One day we literally were at dinner, and she was like 18 months, maybe almost two years old, and we're like, Hattie, will you pray?

And she literally like hold our fingers and she went, dude, Jesus, and started praying.

And we were like, This is beautiful.

So she's a she's so good at praying.

So I'll have her pray first, she'll hold my finger and she'll pray, and then I'll always say, Can Daddy pray for you?

And she just lights up and nods her head, and so we pray together.

So there's these moments, even as like instead of I'm child even now telling myself, like, even to find those quiet place moments, like I want to find those where I can be just me and the Lord.

But if I need to bring one of my kids in that moment and and have that with them and the Lord, it feels even more abundant because then he is indwelling them too.

And so now you have this communion of like Absolutely, here we are together.

So I just I just love this because I just this is already something that's I've been feeling in my shame.

There's not shame but I do.

No, I feel encouraged.

I feel like by this conversation.

If we will I remember the first time I that somebody said make an appointment with Jesus and I was at Southeastern University, nobody taught me how to have a time with God.

Yeah.

This is why this is like an interesting thing to me.

It's like, how do I have a time with God?

So I said, Well, just put it on your calendar and be like, Jesus, I want to meet you at 4 30 after, you know, after New Testament survey class.

And I'm like, So I was like, we'll see if that works.

And so I did.

I went in, I went into my dorm room at 4 30, I opened up my Bible, I sat, I read, and I felt like the Lord showed up in that space, just with the thoughts I was thinking, the way I was feeling.

So I I think it's important to have an intentional time with the Lord.

Um and I think intention is just a huge word.

I think it's a big invitation for believers is um to show intention, to have a plan.

And if the plan gets knocked around, that's okay.

We show up tomorrow.

So to to bring just a few more thoughts here to us as we are creating this rhythm, one thing to consider this is that this is about response, not initiation.

So sometimes we think we come to the room and we have to invite God in, or we have to conjure up some emotion, or we have to get ourselves in a but what if God is already there, already speaking, already desiring to be with us.

Yeah, we just gotta lean in.

I love it.

We we lean in.

We lean in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're like, God, I know you're here.

Yeah.

I wanna I wanna quiet myself and posture myself to hear what you have to say.

Come on.

Yeah.

The Christian life is a is a response.

It is a response.

It's a response.

It's a response.

It really is.

And so yeah, time with the Lord, response, prayer time, response, reading the word, response to his living word in front of us and what he's telling us.

It's just responding.

I love that.

You think about that, like you want to spend time with Hattie.

Okay.

God wants to spend time with you.

You want to spend time with Mosey.

God wants to spend time.

So it's like we're like, oh, I've gotta I've gotta spend time with God.

You know what I mean?

Like, why don't you just show up to the invitation that's already come up?

You know what I mean?

Like all of it's holy.

Yeah, that's good.

How you how you bring yourself to the table, to the playtime, to the car, to the to work, the conversation with the you know, your employees, and all of that.

So good.

So response, not in not uh initiation.

Uh the second one, consistency over intensity.

A meaningful time with God does not have to feel dramatic.

Some days bring insight, other days the formation is simply showing up.

That's true.

Obedience.

Yeah.

It doesn't have to be you you may go to your time with God and uh it may be revelatory, it may be tingly, it may be like it may be nothing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You you don't stop going to the gym because you don't notice growth that day.

Yeah.

Okay.

Right.

You don't stop loving God.

Yeah.

That's really good.

So another one, bring your actual self.

Bring the distraction, the anger, the doubt, the anxiety, the exhaustion and desire.

Not the person you think you're supposed to be.

Come on.

Yep.

You said it earlier.

Yeah.

The first thing you pray is whatever's on your heart.

Yeah.

So sometimes it's okay to sometimes it's not good.

It's not good.

It's not pretty.

Have you ever yelled at God?

Yeah.

No, I get angry.

You've yelled at God?

I'm not, I don't know.

Like maybe my mind.

Yeah.

No, I've gotten angry.

I've I've had fits.

Yeah.

And I but that's the intimacy that I have with God.

Yeah.

Because I can bring my whole self.

Yeah.

And that's how it should be.

And I think people there there's a reverence still to it, but it's it's I'm gonna throw a fit, you know, and that's where I want to throw my fits.

So you don't have to see those.

But he takes me in and he's like, Hey, I see you.

Yeah.

I see you.

Somebody said that the reason that we that we pray the psalms, which the psalms include like shaking your fist at God, shaking your fist at the world, wanting to kill people like and to kill their babies.

Yeah.

Uh uh, that's all in the psalms.

Yeah, okay.

So the reason we pray it out is so we don't act it out.

So the psalms are the prayer book of the church, and we we bring our anger at our enemies through the psalms to God.

God, they really tick me off.

You know what I mean?

God burned their house down.

The reason we pray it out is so we don't act it out.

And then God doesn't answer any of those prayers.

Yeah.

God does exactly what God's going to do, which is love them like he loves you.

Yeah.

But it's in our prayer time and it's in that time with the Lord where we can say the things that are really on our heart.

I have yelled at God.

I have yelled at God over disappointments.

I have yelled at God over the time to where I'm like, how did you let this happen in the life of one of my children?

Yeah.

I've I'm like, this, like, where were you?

Why wouldn't I mean God's God's heard some words for me?

God's heard some words from me that I would not say from the pulpit.

Uh, and I think that's okay for me to say.

Yeah.

Because it's my time with God.

Either I'm gonna be honest with God and raw with God or vulnerable with God, or I might as well not do it.

Yeah, it's not interesting.

He already knows.

You're all in.

Yeah.

It's confession.

Yeah.

It is confession, and that can be messy.

And that's messy.

God can handle it.

Yeah, he can.

Throw your emotion at God.

That's good.

Uh, number four, scripture is encounter.

So one of the things that I I love the scripture, and I like reading it sometimes, and sometimes I don't.

Um, so I'm really struggling right now with my Bible reading plan.

Uh, I don't like it.

So I'm doing through the Bible in a year with Tara Lee Cobble.

And it is I hear it's amazing.

Oh, so people love it.

Yeah, they they're just like caught fire.

They love it.

Yeah, I can't stand it.

Um I could see that.

Yeah, it's a uh chronological thing.

So it's like you're Reading this, and then all you like you're in Chronicles, and all of a sudden you're over in Kings, and then all of a sudden you're over here, and it's like God, and you have to wait like three quarters of the year to get to the New Testament.

Right.

Yep.

Now it it's wonderful.

Tara Lee is a gifted teacher.

The thing I like about it is every day she teaches you what you just read, right?

I just don't like the structure of the thing.

It's not her, it's a it's the structure.

So I'm wrestling with my Bible reading plan right now, and I come often to it, and I feel like, oh well, here's today's Bible reading plan.

And it's gonna be three chapters, and I'm gonna read it, and I have to disrupt that tendency to come to my Bible reading plan to get it done, to come to the Bible reading plan to get information.

I have to remind myself, no, you're reading the Bible to encounter God.

Right?

So what Bible reading plan do you guys use?

How do you read the Bible?

Like, do you just open it up and you just flip it open and it's like, oh, well, here we are today.

And a second hesitation is like, what do you do?

What do you do?

In this season, because the season's different for me, I follow I follow app.

I also do the Bible reading app and and what we have, I forget the name of you version, but also I'm in um it's Alexio Divina.

And it's basically where we go through the scripture and we pray the scripture and then we see ourselves in the scripture, and I think it's something 360, or I'll have to look it up for you and give a resource.

But I love listening to it on the way to work, and then I also will love you know sitting with it, and then I'll explore that later in the day in my word, in a physical Bible, because I love having a physical Bible, yes.

But if I'm on my way to work or if I'm in that time in right now where I have to be just on the go, that's what I will listen to, and then it invites me into the story.

I'm a very visual person, so I'm the same with you.

I tried to do the chronicle, the chronological, yes, oh my goodness, and I I give up on it.

And because it's it's you maybe like two months in and you miss a day.

Yeah, and I miss a day, and then I'm still in it though, in my defense for my pride.

I'm still in it because I'm not so right now I like to mix things up, so that's where I'll go, and some of it will follow the church calendar, and so I will I will be in the story with it.

I'm a visual person, so I like to imagine being in the store.

And so that's how I'm right now getting fed with scripture.

So there are a lot on the Bible app.

If you download the Bible apps, U version.

Yeah, U-Version.

It's um if you just type in the Bible in your app store, yep, it will have plans in there.

Yes.

And you could do like the Gospel of Matthew in a month, you can do the New Testament in a year.

I would just encourage people to find a plan.

Find their room and to try something out.

Yes.

And you're gonna have to try out a lot of things before you find something that works for you.

Um, I'm I'm about to pivot and do something in addition to what I'm doing.

I'm already, I mean, it's August.

I might as well finish through the Bible in a year.

Yeah.

And just to say to all of my friends that I did it as a little bit of a flex.

Like, hey, look what I'm gonna do.

I did it once before.

But I think I'm never doing it again.

It's like opening up the Bible and just reading it, that's hard for me too.

I need something, and I think that's like everyone.

Yeah.

I mean, it's rare that I hear that they just start reading, or someone has to start somewhere.

So it's Genesis.

Or so for me, I think like you're right, just going in and finding something that would look up the way.

Yeah, trying it out and being okay if you let it go.

Are you curious about Jesus?

Are you curious about yeah.

One thing I I I've been loving to do as well is based on the weekend, the message that you preach on the weekend.

Yes.

When you're in a passage, whether you're in that too.

It's like I'm going, I'm going there that week, and I'm going, you know, before that several chapters, and then after that several.

So it's like, you'll you take us to a moment, yeah, to a story, to a moment, like, okay, uh that's what the Lord put on your heart for our church.

Okay, so I want to lean into that.

Yeah.

And I'm gonna go before it, and then go a bit after it that week and um kind of dive in a little deeper to the story and the context.

Yeah.

And the beauty in that, I find in the rhythm of our church, when Tommy brings a message and being in the spirit in that way and leading with that, you find that it's like it starts popping up where even if you didn't know where to begin, you're like, maybe I should start there.

Yeah, 100%.

And then I feel like at times then the church is getting really in sync.

Well, I just heard that I need to be putting it.

That's what I feel too about.

I love that we're like community.

Hey, actually, we were just talking about that.

Yes, you know, or hey, actually, last week I was in that and I love hearing that in the church because we're in this in sync and this rhythm of figuring it out.

So I think that's a great stuff too, Tommy.

Is like taking what you preach, figuring whatever was preached on Sunday, read a couple chapters before a couple chapters.

Pull the thread.

You were inspired on Sunday, so here comes Monday.

What are you doing with that Monday?

And what are you doing with Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday?

There's a reason.

I mean, I believe, Charlotte, that there's a reason that obviously you're you hear from the Lord, and when you're preaching messages, they're they're in a season four reason for us as a church.

And I love that thought, Sheena, and just feel that as well.

That if okay, if we all lean into that together, I know we've had groups, small groups in the past that literally study the message from the week.

And I love that too, because then everyone's in the same heartbeat.

I don't know if we've done that before.

That's a great small group.

Yeah, I've heard I've heard about it.

Yeah, I think throw out just an idea.

I want to go to that small group.

She just got more.

Come on.

I want to throw out this idea here.

Okay.

Um, we've made spending time with God such an individual effort.

It's like this is my personal quiet time with God.

Um I want to encourage people to have a friend that you talk about these things with.

Sacred Communion.

Yeah, if you will.

A soul friend.

If you will, soul friends.

We'll call them soul friends.

Um my friend Arthur uh Kurzweil gave me a name for this.

It's called in the in the Jewish tradition, it's called Havrusa.

Uh H-A-V-R-U-S-A is pronounced different ways, but um it's a study partner.

So it's more than accountability partner that's like, hey, did you have a dirty thought this week?

Did you read the Bible?

How many push-ups did you do?

It's somebody that's saying, like, you know, in your time with God, like, what are you what are you interested in?

What are you studying?

What do you and what Arthur and I do, we actually study a text together.

So I would encourage people to find somebody that they look up to or that you're like, yeah, you seem solid, not crazy.

Um what are you studying in the Bible?

Could I study that at the same time you study?

So while I'm doing it alone, I also maybe have a weekly coffee conversation or a text thread or something like that.

So let me just let me pull all this back together.

What we're saying, just to make it really practical, is a specific time with a single focus.

I'm coming there to read the Bible, I'm coming there to pray, I'm coming there to reflect in a journal about what I've read.

And this whole time can take 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever you've got.

Um and then I want to encourage you to have at least one other person.

Maybe it's your small group, maybe it's one other person that you talk with about that.

I want to just go rapid fire on just a handful of things really quick.

So we've talked about the rhythm.

We've talked about what's happening in that rhythm.

The next thing I want to say is make room for silence.

Just carve out 30 seconds just to sit still and say nothing and to focus your mind on one idea.

Maybe it's something you read, uh, maybe it's something that came up for you in prayer.

The next would be to include your body, that your body is part of it's it's it sounds so simple.

It's it's part of your life with God.

So many times we think like the real me is trapped on the inside of this body, but that's actually not a Christian idea.

That's more of a like what's called it, like a Gnostic idea.

And the early church was like, no, no, no, no.

Jesus was raised to life in a body.

The body is good, the body's holy.

So kneeling, laying on your face, even walking around can put you in a place to where you can pray better.

It can help you curb the distractions that are coming in.

So when I I never pray standing still, like, bro, I got too much ADD for that.

Again, I've never taken the test, but if I did, I would crush it.

It's in there somewhere.

I would pass it.

It's in there somewhere.

I don't think spiritual directors are licensed to confirm.

No, but in this moment, I confirm.

But soul friends are.

So walking around.

Soul friends are um lighting a candle, something like that.

The next thing I would say is honor different pathways.

And there's uh a lovely book by a man named Gary Thomas, and I think I've got these right.

I just kind of jotted them down.

But Gary says there's nine sacred pathways, and you're gonna resonate with some of these more than the next.

So your time with God might be you sitting in a chair doing a certain thing, but listen to some of these pathways.

The naturalist, the naturalist loves creation and the outdoors.

So, what if your time with God, what if you're listening to the Bible as you're walking on a trail, listening to the Bible as you're running through your name?

So, what if your time with God doesn't look like you sitting indoors, but actually looks like you moving around outside?

Next one would be the ascetics, uh, the A-S-C-E-T-I-C-S.

They like solitude, silence, and simplicity.

Some people are really good in that way.

The enthusiasts, they like celebration, mystery, joy.

The sensates, they like beauty in the five senses.

They're gonna like, they're gonna feel really alive in these grandiose, uh, beautiful environments.

Activists, they come alive in action and justice, confrontation of the things that are working against God's ways, the contemplatives, adoration and intimate prayer, the traditionalist ritual and symbol, caregivers loving God by serving others, intellectuals study, ideas, and truth.

So some of this takes us beyond our that that that time with God.

But what I'm wanting to do is to say they're gonna feel times, there are gonna be ways that you feel more alive than other times, right?

So look for ways that you come alive with God.

Maybe pick up a copy of that book.

And then finally, let devotion become obedience.

The practice is never just about you and your alone time with God.

The time alone ought to lead you into your time with others and loving other people.

So that's the whole point.

That's so good.

At any rate, that's a lot to consider.

But maybe there's something in that that stands out and that'll help somebody.

And I think what I would say if I was sitting with someone who was saying, this is as it's a practice.

We're practicing.

You don't have it have to have it all right.

Yeah.

We're trying some stuff.

We're trying some stuff.

We're growing, we're transforming, we're we're renewing, we're we're evolving, we're moving forward, and we're practicing.

That's good.

And if you say that it takes the I think we sometimes tend to put ourselves in a box or it has to be this way or that way.

So I would just say we're practicing.

I love that.

What does practice look like?

You get better and better each day.

Every day we begin again.

We begin again.

Always we begin again.

That's good.

Yeah.

So I want to encourage anybody that's listening or watching today.

Uh, if you're finding it difficult to have a time with God, start small, start specific in a sacred space with a single focus.

Don't make it too big, make it bisezed.

If you can read one chapter of the Bible, start there realizing that all of this is about us spending time with our Heavenly Father, and then one final thing, bring one other person into that conversation with you.

Find your havrusa, find your soul friend, find your sacred companion, and then talk with them and say, Hey, I'm trying some stuff.

What should I do next?

The Christian journey has become very personalized and very individualized, and that's a new invention, man.

So, what we need is somebody that can walk with us, somebody we can ask questions with.

And then, hey, if you have more questions, you can uh email us.

You can go on to visit1.church, and there is a contact form on there if you have a question about that.

We'd love to bring it to the next podcast episode.

You can comment anywhere in the socials, and we would love to discuss your questions.

So, Spiritual Director Sheena, thank you for being with us today.

Thank you for having me.

That was joining us.

And we will talk to you guys next time.

Bye bye.

Thank you for joining us on Grow As You Go.

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