The Listening Ear

Paying Attention to the Inner Light-7

In the final section of Mind the Light, Brent Bill talks about how darkness in our lives can enable us to see God’s light better. Here he is talking about those times in life when we are plunged into blackness.

It is often the case, that experiences of darkness drive us to seek God’s light with renewed vigor. It can also be that the negative spaces in our lives can highlight those times when we have seen the light.

We might reflect on how we have found God’s light in those times when we’ve been plunged into darkness. That can give us a clue as to how we can open ourselves to God’s light each day.

Now that we have considered some of the things that Brent Bill has to say about the divine light that dwells in us, we might want to take time to reflect on that kind of light we need for our journey through life. What are the ways we can try to find that light?

If this discussion of divine light has been of interest to you, you might want to pick up a copy of Mind the Light. I said at the beginning, one of the most thought-provoking parts of the book are the ‘Illuminating Moments’ scattered throughout it. For me, they alone are worth the price of the book. These questions give us much to consider about how God’s light is evident in our lives.

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One of the most intriguing sections of Brent Bill’s Mind the Light is the one in which he reflects on the impact that artificial light has upon our spirituality. When we possess the ability to turn light on and off whenever we want, it not only give us more opportunity to read the Scriptures, but it also makes it possible for us to cram more activity into our lives. Artificial light can have both positive or negative impact on our spirits.

This can lead us to ask ourselves some questions: Do I regard artificial light as a gift of God? Does such light make it possible for me to experience God in ways that wouldn’t be available to me otherwise? Is there a way that human light can feed my soul?

We might also want to consider how forgoing human light might lead us to a richer spiritual experience. Instead of flipping on an electric light, perhaps lighting a candle or even sitting in the darkness can encourage an attitude of prayer.

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If we can find God’s light within us, then certainly it must dwell in others. Another way for us to Mind the Light is to look for the light of God in other persons. Brent Bill asks us to try to see others they way that God sees them. This will require some imagination on our part.

For Bill, this way of seeing other people starts with recognizing what we have in common with someone else. By making ourselves aware of what we have in common, we begin to realize that the peculiarities and unusual traits we find in them are not really the different from our own.

As we really see others, it leads us to pray for them. One way to do that is simple to imagine them surrounded in God’s loving light. This can move us outside ourselves so that we see them with the loving eyes of God.

It strikes me that it is particularly important for us to put this into practice with those people with whom we have experienced some friction. When we can see them surrounded by God’s love, I think we are better equipped to deal with people who may irritate us. We also recognize how our own make up may contribute to our feelings about them.

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In Mind the Light Brent Bill urges us to see God’s light both around us and inside us. Just as all living beings need light, our souls crave the light of God’s presence. After all, “God is light; in God there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5).

Bill contends that we will experience God’s presence when we learn to see deeply, to behold, using our senses to be sure, but also seeking to see beyond the surface of things. He teaches us that we will see hints of God’s activity, God’s guidance and God’s grace when we learn to look at the world and our lives in this way.

It is important to note that God remains sovereign in this process. The Spirit will reveal himself to us when and in the way that the Spirit chooses. Nevertheless, we can learn to be looking for the ways that God shows himself to us. That’s what it means to mind the light.

Paying Attention to the Inner Light

I have just finished working through another book by J. Brent Bill called Mind the Light: Learning to See with Spiritual Eyes. I’ve written preciously about another of his books, The Sacred Compass. Brent Bill writes from a Quaker perspective and in this book he focuses on the Quaker notion of ‘inner light.’ 

Minding the Light involves paying attention to the light of God’s presence in our lives. It is a way of deep seeing that tries to discern the ways that God is involved in our inner and our outer lives. It has taken me a while to make my way through this book. 

The primary reason that I’ve taken my time with this book is that it offers a rather extensive series of ‘Illuminating Moments.’ These brief exercises are intended to help the reader pay attention to the divine light in our lives. As I read through the book, I frequently used these exercises as an opportunity to reflect in my journal on what I was reading in the book. 

In the next posts, I’ll comment on some of the concepts in the book. If you find the concepts to be helpful, I’d encourage you to pick up a copy of the book so that you can work through the ‘Illuminating Moments.’ They will help you apply the concepts to your own life.

Small Group Ministry

I met with the new Small Group Ministry team for the first time last night. The purpose of the team is to support and encourage small group ministry in our congregation. I don’t really know a better way for Christians to grow in their faith than being part of a small group Bible study.

Most people have a high regard for the Bible, in theory at least. Yet, I recently heard about one survey that found that in a given year only 6% of the members in an average congregation participated in any kind of Bible study and that only about half had ever participated in a study of the Bible.

If the Bible is to have any real impact on our lives, we need to be reading the Word and learning from it on a regular basis. Small groups are an excellent place for this to happen.

A new Small Group Ministry team has begun making plans to encourage small group participation this fall. Beginning September 13, I am planning to do a sermon series on the book of James. The Small Group Ministry team is suggesting that as small groups start meeting this fall, that they consider using a study focusing on James. Samples of materials on James will be available for people to look at to make sure the material fits their group. A couple of choices will be offered.

During the sermon series (and probably after it is finished), I plan to lead a larger group study of James during the Sunday school hour. The study will take place in the church fellowship hall. I am looking forward to what we can discover in this somewhat neglected book for the Bible.

The Small Group Ministry team would like to know which small groups are already planning to begin meeting this fall. If you are part of a small group that is planning to start meeting again this fall, please let the church office know and give us the name of a contact person for the group so the team knows where to send small group information.

The Small Group Ministry team is also looking for individuals who would be willing to host a new small group either in their home or at the church. If you are interested, please contact the church office about that as well.

Mission Trip Resource

I don’t know how many of those who read this blog are interested in short-term mission trips, but I recently discovered an new resource that I think will be invaluable for those who are planning such a trip.

The resource is called Round Trip. It is described as ‘a short-term missions documentary and curriculum.

The package includes copies of a leaders and a participant’s guide, but the heart of it is a DVD that features five major video segments, done in a documentary style, that follow two short-term mission teams. One is from North Carolina and the other is from Kenya.

The documentary depicts the fears, challenges and the learnings that each team experiences as they travel to the other’s congregation and community. There are many memorable moments in the video as both Africans and Americans reflect on what happens to them before, during and after the trip.

Andy Crouch, one of the co-creators of the video, describes a vision of round trip mission, where each side is enriched by their bond with the other. The video and the print resources are packed with helpful information and crucial questions for any group planning a short-term mission trip.

You can find out more about the video at this site. I plan to use it with the group who will travel with me to Tanzania next year.

My Spiritual Director

I am scheduled to see my spiritual director tomorrow. I have been seeing Sr. Linda every month or so since I moved to Treynor. Before that, I went to see Sam, a Presbyterian minister who lived in Mason City at the time.

Its probably been at least 20 years ago that I felt a need to deepen my spiritual life. I have to say that when I graduated from seminary I wasn’t very disciplined about time for prayer, reflection and listening for the voice of God in my life. After spending a decade or more in pastoral ministry, I decided that I wanted a better spiritual foundation both for my life and my work. I started keeping a journal, had an opportunity to take a sabbatical in my last parish and finally decided to start seeing a spiritual director.

What do those visits do for me? For one thing, they keep me accountable for my devotion to prayer and meditation. I have someone to help me process what’s going on in my spiritual life. I make it a practice each month before I go to see my spiritual director to review what I have written in my journal in the past month. I try to journal each day, reflecting on a passage of Scripture, reviewing what’s happening in my life and how God might be part of that, and writing down some of the prayers I’ve made to God during that time. My monthly review helps me notice patterns that may have developed and issues in need to explore with my spiritual director.

Sometime my spiritual director suggests a resource or a practice i might try when I’ve gotten stuck with something. Most of the time, though, the spiritual director is someone who listens, asks clarifying questions and helps me see what I am thinking and how God might be speaking to me. I don’t know if that sounds like much, but over the years its been helpful for me.

Reading The Sacred Compass-8

In the final chapter of Sacred Compass, Brent Bill explores how we can help others along the Way. There are ways we can offer aid to fellow travelers, helping them to read the sacred compass. Here are some of the ways Bill identifies that we can help others:

• Share our gifts. One great gift we can share is simply to listen to another person. We don’t need to have answers.

• Point to Christ. This is not so much saying, ‘thus says the Lord’ or offering advice as it is encouraging others to listen for the Lord speaking to them.

• Offer space for God. Our listening can help others listen for God as well. We might ask questions that help others consider what God might be saying such as:

--What to you need to move forward? --Do you feel free not to make a decision if you do not reach clear discernment? --Are you seeking confirmation? --How will you know you have the answer you seek?

• Offer a word if you are led to do so. We need to be open to offer a word to another if we feel led to do so, even if we aren’t asked. This, itself, is a matter of discernment for us. It is more than offering advice. It is speaking a word that God has given us to speak.

• Offer a warning. If we are considering offering a warning, we need to examine our motives. Is it because we think we know what is best or because God’s love compels us?

• Walking alongside. When others are going through a dark time, we can simply be with them.

Bill also describes the Quaker practice of forming what they call a Clearness Committee. This is a group of spiritual friends who agree to help us examine an issue and to try to discern where God is leading. The focus in a Clearness Committee is on allowing Christ to be the one who leads and guides.

As a person listens to the group of friends in the Clearness Committee, he or she seeks words that confirm or questions that point out things that have not been considered. The process used by the Clearness Committee needs to be bathed in prayer. There is often a playful attitude, a joy, that develops as the group seeks Christ’s leading. It is good to begin and end the Clearness Committee’s time together with silence as a way to let God lead.

Bill goes on to describe a specific process that a Clearness Committee might use that includes: introductions, a time of quiet, speaking the truth in love, listening deeply and concluding.

Brent Bill has given us a rich resource for seeking God’s will for our lives and thus following the Sacred Compass. If you have found my posts on the book interesting, I’d urge you to pick up a copy of the book, itself.

Reading The Sacred Compass-7

The next question Brent Bill addresses in the Sacred Compass is what if the Way leads us to unexpected places? Bill recognizes how this does happen for us—we find ourselves in unexpected and difficult situations.

Bill begins by reminding us that we follow a God of the unexpected. God is not always what we expect, not just Jesus meek and mild, but a God who churns us inside and out. The path of God can take us into rough weather. Often we discover ourselves being transformed by God in unexpected ways. And God has a way of showing up in unexpected others.

In the unexpected places, we learn to trust God. We ask unexpected questions, that we wouldn’t have asked otherwise. Questions like:

• How did we (not I—that’s too self-centered) get here?
• Why did we get here?
• What are we here for?
• What are we going to do about it?

Door can unexpectedly open and then close again. We may eventually discover why or we may never know. The unexpected causes us to stop and check the sacred compass again. Unexpected places become great reflecting pools. And they may give us unexpected opportunities to witness to our faith.

Even though the sacred compass can lead to the unexpected, Bill believes that it is definitely worth following. It based on the assumption that God does have a purpose for us and that what happens in our lives is not just leading us nowhere particular. It is a path going somewhere, leading us to Someone.