For about a year now, I have been taking part in retreats put on by my dear friend, Kristi. She is a fabulous woman of faith and wisdom. I admire her for her tenacity with which she seeks God and works at "finding God in all things." Her goal in creating these one-day reflective retreats is to offer to anyone who thirsts for it, the space to seek God in a place of beauty. She creatively ties in a theme for the day with different ideas on how one might interact with God throughout the day -- whether by walking to the beach, journaling, painting, praying the Psalms, or even blowing bubbles. Check out her website here: www.quietreflection.org.
As I have offered my time to the Lord over the last few several years, a gift of mine that Jesus has given me is that of hospitality. Helping Kristi with the food and set-up for these retreats feeds my soul in a wonderful way as I get to do some baking and thoughtful planning of food to nourish the bodies that come as they feed on God's Spirit as well. It's amazing how much my heart can delight in serving Jesus through feeding the people that he loves...
But today, as I drove home from the retreat, I realized a few things...
1) that the Holy Spirit never does what I think he will (or should?) do in my own heart each time I serve at these retreats. He always catches me off guard and I find myself realizing after the fact how timely his "curve ball" of a time it was for me...
and 2) as I listened to a recording of a directee I sat with earlier this week (recording and playback is an essential part of my training as a spiritual director), I realized how much the Spirit is at work in both me and my directee right now. I was struck tonight by the Spirit's faithfulness in giving me "eyes to see and ears to hear" with my directee some of what he's up to in her life. And then I realized that some of the very same revelations this sweet girl had about her journey with Jesus mirror some similar things that the Lord has been yearning to show me about my own journey. Different circumstances and journeys, and yet the Spirit is still able to use a 45-minute session through which I am training for ministry to both minister deeply to my directee and then touch my own heart in a unique way.
What might he be stirring in your heart this week?
