Our hearts and Times

We are constantly being formed by the spiritual activities we take part in and the occurrences of everyday life. This will include our attitudes our activities and our thought life. As I said last week I believe there will be some ebb and flow closer to God and again moving away from God. As we make advances and also struggle with the things of God we aren't quite coming to grips with easily. When we are in the waiting zone, either waiting for God to do something or waiting to hear from him. I do believe however the we may ebb and flow a little or even a lot at times, but we are still travelling either towards God or away from God as a basic trend.

I love this basic paragraph from Henri Nouwen.
"The authentic spiritual life finds its basis in the human condition. The spiritual life is not lived outside, before, after, or beyond everyday existence. No, the spiritual life can be real only as it is lived in the midst of the pains and joys of the here and now. Therefore, we need to begin with a careful look at the way we think, speak and act from hour to hour, day to day, week to week and year to year, in order to become more fully aware of our hunger for the Spirit."

Based on this we start to see the necessity of the examined life. I am not sure that Henri would have us paralysed by "navel gazing" at what we are doing, but he would have us spend time time each day reflecting on our actions, thoughts and feelings. Questions arise what activities are we involved with on a regular basis? Is there a spiritual component to these activities? For some types of activities the answer would seem to be no, but others are a distinct yes, these have distinct spiritual influence.

What are watching on television?
What are we reading or listening to?
Do we read our Bible or Pray?

All of these activities do have a spiritual connection they will either take you towards God or away from him. The ebbs and flows of spiritual life may change on a daily basis, but it about the trend.

One of the things I do on a daily basis is work with pornography addicts and programmes. This is definitely a growth industry and the Christian world is certainly not exempt. Because of the huge shame and guilt factors associated with this type of activity it tends to be one of those that is taking both men and women away from God, although they are trying with all their might to love God.

So it is good to examine our habits and work out where we are and decide is change necessary?