Our
Spiritual Health
My Five
Smooth Stones
by
Debe Nelson
If you were in worship on July 10th you
heard my sermon on the David and Goliath story and our
spiritual practices.
While preparing to write both my sermon
and the children's lesson plans, little David -- the
shepherd boy in the story -- really spoke to me. I kept
thinking. How did he have the courage to do what he did?
Was it really as simple as the scripture says, he knew
God would help him do what he needed to do? Can you
hear the skepticism in my voice? “Ah, come on,” I can
hear the kids say.
Well, I don't believe it's simple at
all. Our faith lives need to be nurtured just like
anything else important to us. So, what did David do?
What do we do to nurture our spirituality so that our
faith is strong, so that we are strong, so that we can
go out into the community and the world to care for
God's people and environment? Where does the strength
to respond to God's call in our lives come from?
For me, preparing for a youth event,
retreat, or Sunday School lesson is part of my spiritual
nurture because I use a process that includes prayer.
First, I read scripture, other curriculum, favorite
books on the subject I'm dealing with or other material.
Sometimes, I talk with colleagues. Then, I need to be by
myself in a quiet place. Sometimes, that quiet place is
the deck in my backyard. Sometimes it's riding in my
car. Wherever I am, it's the quiet and the listening
that is important. When I'm quiet, I can listen for that
"still, small voice" deep inside. I believe that
is the Holy. That is God's voice.
Being intentional about listening for
that voice is a daily spiritual practice. Setting aside
time to listen, to be quiet, to get out of my own way is
as important for my well-being as setting aside time to
brush my teeth or shower. When I'm quiet, I'm able to
get in touch with what I think and believe, where God is
in the stuff of my life. It's really prayer. It's not
about saying the right words or asking for anything.
For me, prayer is about listening.
I've used other practices over the
years. One year, while I was serving as Lay Reader at
Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Warrenton, NC, my priest
suggested I spend time each day reading the Psalms. He
said if I read one Psalm each day starting on Ash
Wednesday, I would finish up on Easter. I did that. It
was incredible. I started by praying for God to open my
heart to hear what I needed to hear. And then, I read.
And Father Henry was right. I finished on Easter. It
was a great way to develop a habit of daily prayer and
scripture reading that was incredibly nurturing. I
found favorite passages that I go back to often.
From that one Lenten spiritual practice
came a love of Lectio Divino or
Praying With Scripture. Taking a few verses of
scripture or other reading, settle into a quiet
comfortable place. Read the passage through, listening
for words or phrases that jump out at you. Then, in the
quiet, think about that word or phrase. Resist the
temptation to analyze what jumps out at you. Resist
thinking about anything but that word or phrase. Then,
read through the passage again. This time, when you are
finished, go ahead and wonder about what that word or
phrase is saying to you. Read the passage a third
time. This time, when you are finished, in the quiet,
listen for what God is saying to you in that word or
phrase that has jumped out at you. Spend some time with
that. And then, leave it. Go on with your day or night
and then, sometime later, spend some more time with what
God was saying to you in the quiet.
I've used praying with scripture on
retreats with youth as well as adults. It's really
amazing how tempted we are to jump right into
psychoanalyzing that word or phrase that jumps out at
us. But, when we resist the temptation and work through
the process, it can be quite illuminating.
As in Lectio Divino, my quiet moments of
listening for God are where I find strength. My five
smooth stones that give me the strength to respond to
God's call in my life are found in the quiet where I can
here that "still small voice" of God.
