Crosswalk - Grow in Faith with Daily Christian Living Articles

Part Two

OPEN MYSELF TO GOD

Noticing when someone shows up for us is an important part of developing a relationship. But the truth is we can become so preoccupied with all we have to do that we look right through people and neglect even those we love. Being open and present for others doesn’t happen automatically. It requires intention and desire. If we cannot develop human relationships on the fly, we cannot expect to develop the divine friendship without intent and desire.

Intentionally learning to notice when God shows up is a huge part of the spiritual journey. After all, we cannot open ourselves to someone we do not notice. The O spiritual disciplines help us pay attention to our lives and God’s activity within them. They open us to truths about ourselves. And inevitably one truth leads to another and another. The more we tell God the truth about ourselves, the more authentic our relationship with the Trinity can be.

The “opening” disciplines specifically address how to make space in a crowded life to notice the movements of the Spirit of God. They can take us into deep places of knowing how we are accepted, received and lovingly known by God. And it is receiving this love that moves us to worship.

“The greatest of all illusions is the illusion of familiarity.” —G. K. Chesterton

Contemplation

DESIRE	to wake up to the presence of God in all things
DEFINITION	“Contemplation is about waking up. To be contemplative is to experience an event fully, in all its aspects.” (Ronald Rolheiser in The Shattered Lantern)
SCRIPTURE	“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18) “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said. ‘We are his offspring.’ ” (Acts 17:27-28)
PRACTICE INCLUDES	practicing the presence of God breath prayer, simple prayer, prayer of the heart taking time to truly see and gaze on life, others, arts and so forth refusing the compulsion to go everywhere, see everything and try out all that is novel reflecting on experiences so as to benefit from their happening sensitivity and obedience to God’s revelation savoring the symbolic nature of life and faith noticing how symbols can give meaning to particular actions
GOD-GIVEN FRUIT	keeping company with Jesus all the time freedom from a preoccupation with self that keeps you from focusing on others living the tensions of life reflectively rather than avoiding them relishing your humanness and the beauty of each of your brothers and sisters seeing there is more to life than efficiency and productivity being patient with life being, not just doing developing an awareness of the richness of the interior life knowing through faith, hope and love, not just the mind

Part 2: Open Myself To God

Contemplation