30 Days of Touching

Day 3—That was very touching!

There’s touching. And then there’s being touched. The focus of my reflection today is on the later, but not in the way you might think. This morning, I had an ultrasound. (Clarification—no, I’m not pregnant. No, I don’t have anything serious going on.)

Of all my “touching” experiences today, that one is by far the most memorable. The technician probed and prodded with the ultrasound wand, making sure the high frequency sound waves penetrated into my organs so that she could get a good picture of what she needed to see. Her "touching" touched beyond the external/physical to the inside of me.

Touch can do that.

Touch transmits energy beyond the physical sensation—it gets under our skin. It “touches” us on the inside. When my husband puts his hand on the back of my neck, his arm around me or holds me, the sensation of being touched by him penetrates my skin and makes my heart warm. Touching has very powerful properties!

Is that why Jesus often touched people when he healed them? Instead of standing at a distance, saying the word, and watching what happened, he typically moved toward them, placed his hand on them and healed them. His physical contact was the agency through which his healing came.

As I consider the impressive nature of touch, I want to ask:

• Who needs my touch?
• Whose touch do I need?
• How does Jesus want to touch me today?

How would you answer those questions for yourself?

30 Days of Touching

Day 2—Lukewarm

All daylong I fought being cold. I resisted lifting the covers off when it was time to get out of bed. I took an extra hot shower to make up for the chill. I drove downtown, loosely gripping the frigid steering wheel of my car. During my meeting, I cradled a cup of tea to warm my hands. I walked back to the car as the frosty wind whipped through my unbuttoned coat. I cranked up the heat until I was toasty again.

Cold and hot. Cold and hot. I kept trying to find that comfortable place in the middle.

My sense of touch enables me to feel and prefer certain temperatures. It influences my proclivity toward warmth somewhere in the middle--would you call that “lukewarm?”

God, on the other hand, seems to have an aversion to lukewarm. The words of Revelation 3 come to mind. “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!”

All day, I obediently accommodated my body’s preference for a lukewarm temperature. In what way do I, unconsciously or consciously, accomodate a lukewarm temperature toward God?

Time for confession:

• When I resist a prompting of the Spirit to speak or act on Christ's behalf.
• When I stay busy in order to avoid Spirit-led introspection.
• When I become a slave to personal comfort.
• When I follow the mindless, indifferent, self-absorbed masses traveling the wide road.
• When I treat money like it is mine.

What about you?

30 Days of Touching

Day 1--Feeling Your Prayers

One of the highlights of vacation for me is the increased opportunity to read. I finished two non-fiction books over the holidays. I am slogging my way through a 1,000+-page novel and have begun two other books. Of all the book-friends I have spent time with over break, my favorite was Journey Inward, Journey Outward by Elizabeth O’Connor. Written in the 1960’s, this book describes the formational philosophy of Church of the Savior in Washington, DC—a church that was and is way ahead of it’s time!

I want to write about what I read in this book during my first day of touching because it reminds me of a “tactile” spiritual discipline that I have practiced for the last year that involves praying the inward and outward journey using a finger labyrinth. I will share this exercise with you at the end of this post.

O’Connor writes, “While it is a crucial mistake to assume that churches can be on an outward journey without being on an inward one, it is equally disastrous to assume that one can make the journey inward without taking the journey outward.” She explains that these opposing movements must always be held in tension within our individual lives and within the church. Both are essential for wholeness and living into God’s purposes and are nurtured through three engagements:

• An engagement with oneself: “It is easy for the religious to become closed and unyielding when this dimension of the spiritual life is absent. These are the religious who never seem real.” “As people on an inward journey, we are committed to growing in consciousness, to becoming people in touch with our real selves, so that we know not only what flows at the surface, but what goes on in the depths of us.”
• An engagement with God: “The goal we have been speaking of here is the one of getting our lives rooted in God, so that they are not blown and tossed about by every wind. We need the engagement with self to find out that we have our houses resting on sand, but there is no possibility of getting them over on rock with out an engagement with God.
• An engagement with others: “Engagement with others in depth is always difficult within the church, which is probably why so few try it and why there is so little genuine Christian community in the world.” “As for those who irritate us and make us always want to get out of their way, they may be precisely the ones who have the most to tell us about ourselves.”

Last year, at the end of January, I wrote a prayer for the inward, outward/coming and going journey of our lives. I found an image of a finger labyrinth and printed it on paper with the prayer. (It was written for the congregation I had served in an interim role for 2 ½ years.) A labyrinth symbolizes the natural ebbing and flowing of life and the inward and outward motion of our spiritual journey.

For nearly a year, I have memorized, meditated on and prayed this prayer almost daily. It has become a very special, meaningful and rich experience as I “touch” the labyrinth, moving my finger inward with each phrase of the inward prayer and then outward with each phrase of the outward prayer. I encourage you to consider printing this prayer and a finger labyrinth (easily found on the internet) and begin a daily rhythm of “feeling your prayers.” I hope it will become a beautiful way for you to experience God as you reinforce the inward/outward motion of your life with him.

Blessings on your inward and outward journey!

Journey Inward

Gracious God, the God who woos me,
Draw me by your Spirit into silence and stillness,
Help me find my way home.
Anchor me in your love and grace
As I come to you in my weakness
And learn from your gentle and humble heart.
Give rest to my soul.


Journey Outward

Gracious God, the God who sends me,
Lead me by your Spirit with courage and strength,
Help me find my place in the world.
Fill me with joy from serving you
As I become your hands and feet
And learn to love as you have loved me.
Give vision to my soul.

Taking the Narrow Road

30 Days of Tasting begins Monday, January 4, 2010!

"To have life as vocation is to be aware that there are

two ways to go--the wide road and the narrow road.
The wide road might be called the way of unconsciousness

and the narrow road the way of consciousness.
The wide road is the road of the crowd.

Jesus describes the people on it as not seeing and not hearing."

(from Journey Inward, Journey Outward by Elizabeth O'Connor)

Happy New Year, friend!
I like to think of a new year as a fresh start. This year, I hope that you and I can live with renewed spiritual intention as we seek God and the life he has for us. One of the ways I am learning to attend to God more fully is through focusing on one particular sense and allowing it to help me become present and aware of God. Many of you have participated in the last two experiments--30 Days of Tasting and 30 Days of Seeing--all apart of the workshop and potential book, The Art of Faith: Awakening Your Senses to the Wonder of God.

Beginning Monday, January 4th, my friend and co-author, Brent Bill and I will begin 30 Days of Touching. We'd love for you to join us and begin your new year with an intention to become more sensitive to God's presence and leading in your life.

Here's how to participate:

• Beginning Monday, January 4th, copy and paste a note in your calendar for 30 days that reminds you to "pay attention to touching!"
• Invite your spouse/friends/small group/house church to participate with you.
• Each day, intentionally notice how different things feel to your touch. (The moment you isolate your sense of touch, you begin to live in the present moment, the only place where you can experience God.)
• As you become present, seek to experience God in the thing you are touching. ( How is God speaking to you through the rough bark of a tree, the cold wind on your face, the smooth skin of a baby's cheek, the soft fur of your dog's coat?)
• Reflect on and write about your experience. (You can join Brent and me by commenting about your experiences on either of our blogs or by commenting on our Art of Faith group on Facebook. Your encounters will add depth and color to everyone's experiences.)

May 2010 be a year where you "take the narrow road" and become more conscious of God by tasting, seeing, touching, hearing and smelling the One who is Life within life!

Show--Don't tell!

One of the common principles in effective writing is to “show—don’t tell.” In other words, a good writer aims to demonstrate to the reader what is happening rather than explain to them what is happening. And that is actually one fitting way of relating the difference between our true self and false self.

I thought about this because of a recent experience where I witnessed a leader of an organization “tell” rather than “show.” He was in the middle of bantering about something when he went to great lengths to tell those listening about how committed he is to the organization. Those who bought his defense clapped with enthusiasm, demonstrating approval at his commitment. I, instead, felt suspicious.

This leader’s effort to convince his followers of his devout loyalty to them came off more like telling rather than showing. Telling is indicative of the false self—the self that works hard to convince others of its value and virtues. Our false self is “self-referencing,” as Robert Mulholland suggests. Everything is about it. The false self goes to great pains to prove itself.

The true self, on the other hand, “shows.” Who we are and what we are about becomes evident in the way we live. We don’t need to prove it with our words. When we live from our true self in Christ, we are so deeply connected in love to Christ that our need to confirm to others that we have value or competence is gone.

If you want to know whether you are living from your true self or false self, pay attention to whether you “show” or “tell.”