I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Albert Einstein

Is change hard for you? I’m a person who loves change, but when there are lots of changes happening at the same time, it can feel overwhelming. Today on the Spacious Place, I’m talking about how some major changes in my life has given me more opportunity to enter into compassionate curiosity with myself and how this way of being is shaping me to be a good friend to others as they navigate change as well.

This is anniversary week! I’ve been married to my man Mike for 33 years so I decided to have a sit down with him and share with you some of the places we’ve been, where we are now, as well as where we are headed together. We share some of the ways that speaking our expectations has been helpful for us on the front side of purposeful times together as opposed to making the assumption that the other person is a mind reader. 

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”

Friedrich (Nee-cha) Nietzsche

Join me today as I share some of the personal lessons I’m experiencing as I navigate a season of major life change. I’ll share with you a couple of ways that I’m learning to live in a more spacious place in my own heart and mind, rather than allowing old ideas to live in new places during this transitional season.

To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me

Through the deepest valley, he will lead

Oh the night has been won, and I shall overcome!

Yet, not I but through Christ in me.

-Unknown

In this last episode, I wrap up the conversation with my Sherry.  We talk about grief around empty nesting, and if you are a person who has, or is,  experiencing an especially hard season in life (which is basically anyone on the planet:), she shares about crisis in her family that was super scary and painful that I think will be an encouragement to you as well. Also, be prepared for more tears!

Get into the habit of saying, ‘Speak Lord’, and life will become a romance. Oswald Chambers

This conversation was so good it took two episodes to get through it! Sherry is the first person who I ever hear refer to Jesus as a Love Force. So, in this first episode, we talk a little bit about how that came to be for her and we continue to talk formation around the early seasons of Sherry’s life…what it was like for her as she was raising 3 little boys. She shares some of the creative and practical ways that she stayed close to Jesus and entered into formative practices in bite sized nuggets, during this busy season of her life.

“Whatever is mentionable is manageable.” Fred Rogers

Today I’m sharing a few of the places I found myself in my own alone time with Jesus and sharing how they relate to this process of formation we’ve been talking about. I’ll share some of the ways that I’m engaging with Jesus with the things that I find myself fearful about today, as well as a couple of my failures that I have to entrust to Jesus and allow him to comfort me and shape me into his confident girl.

“No soul on this road is such a giant that it doesn’t not often need to become a child at the breast again…For there is no state of prayer, however sublime, in which it is not necessary often to go back to the beginning.” Teresa of Avila

In this episode I’m sharing a story about Peter, from the book of Matthew and how it relates to us! How we can find ourselves in the places that God has led us, and still experience fear and uncertainty.  And, how there is a pathway and provision for us to name it and stay curious with God about how He’ll meet us right in the middle of it. I’ll get real honest about some of my own fears and invite you into how I’m navigating them in real time. 

“To have Faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” 

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

We live in this middle space of knowing Jesus, but not seeing him face to face yet. The place that requires us to press in by faith, especially with our weaknesses. Today I’ll share a couple of devotionals that were helpful for me in the process of trusting God with my own weak places and asking Him for more!

This is the only time in history when I get to fight for God. This is the only part of my eternal story when I am actually in the battle. Once I die, I’ll be in celebration mode in a glorified body in a whole different set of circumstances. But this is my limited window of opportunity, and I’m going to fight the good fight for all I’m worth.

Joni Eareckson Tada

Simply put, formation will not, cannot happen without the Spirit of God….that’s why it’s called Spiritual formation! Haha  In this episode we’ll talk about what it looks like to live in motion and allow the spirit to shape us in all the places of our lives. You are loved by God and he wants an invitation into all the parts of your life. Join me as we continue talking all about being formed into disciples of Jesus.

I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.  C.S. Lewis

Today as we continue in our journey through spiritual formation, we’ll look at the practice of surrender and how it involves an empowering rhythm of ‘naming’. I’ll share my own experience with this way of being, this naming some things that had happened to me, in the company of Jesus and others, and hopefully you’ll find that it will give you some handles as you navigate the places in your story that need to be seen and acknowledged, so that they can begin to walk the healing path.