The Surprising Turn in My Stream of Spirituality

3/22/22

Dear friend,

I've been sharing recently that we're hosting a virtual retreat day in the Light House on Friday, April 1, around the theme of streams of spirituality, and you are invited to come.

(If you'd like to learn more and register to join us—it's free for our guests—you can find the details here.)

Our preparation for the retreat has invited me to reflect on my own stream of spirituality. How has it flowed throughout my life? Where has it twisted and turned, this way and that, over time? Why did those turns happen for me? What are the headwaters of my stream? How would I describe my stream as it flows right now?

I'm excited to invite the Light House and all of our guests—including you, if you join us—to explore these questions for themselves on our retreat day, to notice what's there and what's true, and to celebrate the joy and beauty of who each one of us is in our spiritual waters.

For myself, I'm noticing a slight bend in my own stream of spirituality right now.

It started with a recent 5-day period in which a bunch of tributaries all joined up with my stream at the same time.

One brought with it a convicted recollection of the ground beneath my feet. One flowed with a whisper of returning home. Another carried the reminder of dozens of prayer images given over 20 years to me, all featuring some version of Christ or the Trinity.

It felt like a moment of coming to my senses and realizing, "This is who you are, Christianne. You stand on the ground of Christ. You have always stood on this ground."

I disagree with a lot of what Christianity looks like in the public square. My convictions about the way of Christ do not match that which receives the most press in our public consciousness. So I have shied away from claiming it too publicly, knowing its connotations are so negative and its woundings are so many.

Additionally, my background as a spiritual director has fostered in me a conviction to receive and meet each person in their experiences of God and names for God in whatever way is right for them—to celebrate and affirm and honor the spiritual ground of each person, whatever that ground may be.

Both of these things—making room for every person to name what is true for them spiritually and to not be known as one of "those" Christians—have led me to erode the reality of my own ground.

To have tacitly denied it, even.

I am seeing that right now. And I'm being asked to respond to that erosion. To let the tributaries that have joined up with my stream do their work in letting the strength of my stream flow.

You could say this new bend in my stream of spirituality is a slight one—one that may not look so different to others who have known my prayer images of Christ and the Trinity all this time and have known or supposed me to be a Christian.

But it's an important one to me. It's a realigning that feels significant, even as it appears quite slight.

I don't (yet) know what it will look like for me to claim the fuller reality of Christ that flows steady and strong in my stream, but I know it's my invitation right now to find out.

To let it be true.

Just as I desire for you to let the reality of your own stream be true.

Thank you for hearing this part of how my stream is flowing right now. Would you like the chance to notice and name your own stream? You can register to join us for our retreat day on April 1 here.

Yours in contemplative light,
Christianne