In November, my friends Victoria and Angel were arranging an event at the American Club. The Christianity Committee of the American Women's Association was hoping that perhaps in 2013 they could get a women's Bible Study going again.
Victoria suggested me.
So I met up with Angel and as we talked, I just knew what God was putting together. I told her, "I've been thinking that a group of my girlfriends should do some kind of service together. This next year we've been thinking of what we can do besides the weekly Bible Study we've had for a number of years now. What if we were to organize a monthly spiritual wellness mini-retreat kind of thing?"
I've loved the concepts presented in Gary Thomas' book SACRED PATHWAYS. It made a huge impact on my understanding of how I best commune with God, spending time enjoying and worshipping him. I'd been raised in a Christian environment which primarily loved God cognitively - through our brains!
As a young believer, and well into adulthood, I worked hard at knowing the Word of God so that I could know and understand God.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm glad for a good foundation in knowing the Bible and being confident that it is an amazingly accurate ancient text that truly is "God-breathed" [2 Timothy 3:16] through writers inspired by the Spirit of God [2Peter 1:20-21]. And, I am still a big champion for Biblical literacy and knowing what we believe and why we can trust it! But, as beings created in the image of this God, we are so much more than a brain!
For as long as I can remember I felt perhaps I wasn't truly devoted to Christ. I confidently believed he was the Son of God, and I believed had become a human in order to become the "once and for all" sacrifice for sin. And yet, I honestly didn't find much joy in the methods I was taught for cultivating my inner life: through a regularly scheduled "quiet time" (preferably early morning!) that also consulted Bible Dictionaries, original languages, and the Thesaurus. All those years I thought something in me was lacking, and not something in the narrow experience of faith I was exposed to.
It wasn't until I was well into my 30's that I read this book and learned that God had made me a "Sensate" and a "Caregiver" and an "Activist." The "Intellectual" is only one of nine spiritual temperaments described!
Now through AWA, I'll have an opportunity to introduce others to these Sacred Pathways, and explore them more together.
After the invitation from Angel, a seasoned ex-pat in Singapore, I got on the phone with Donna, a successful Singaporean visual artist whom I adore.
"Donna, I've been starting to plan something with AWA that I'm excited about for next year...but I didn't come to Singapore to have ministry to American Women, I came for you." I told her about the Spiritual Wellness/Retreat idea and she said,
"Use my studio! When can we start?"
A few months later now, we've started Sacred Pathways on Sunday afternoon with artists, AND this past Monday we had our second intro session with a room full of international women! I'm excited to see what God has planned in both groups!
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