"My soul seems to have grown."

“My soul seems to have grown.”

This was a line I read in a novel last week, where the character was describing the experience of expanding their field of reference. The character had been challenged to focus on the horizon as they traversed a desert. They were surprised as they explained that it felt that the result was personal growth of dramatic proportions.

While it was a wonderful articulation of experiencing the broader realities of life, it highlighted for me again the application of spiritual formation in our lives. First, that we are meant to be continually forming ourselves; growing in our soul and mind and spirit (and how we express those in the world). Secondly, the language we choose when we try to articulate that growth.
Because I have encountered great variances these applications!

So this week, I have spent time intentionally pondering my own spiritual formation: how have I seen the presence of the divine in my daily interactions? In what ways am I looking beyond my immediate sphere? How often do I recognise the opportunity for ministry in ways and methods that one seldom considers for them?

And: how do I talk about that? For me, it is easy to discuss spiritual and religious topics: prayer, angels, the Christ – these do not give me pause in conversation, but I know for many they do. It can be a delicate dance in our multi-cultural world to be respectfully engaging and articulate about our faith. As a culture, do we even have the language to describe our own spiritual journey, even as we invite those around us to continue their journey?

It was quite the mental exercise, and one that stayed with me throughout the week – and continues to ruminate through my heart and my mind. So I share it with you now, to do with what you like.

And I hope that your experience of such ponderings will also be to have a deeper, broader, and wider expression of faith; to be able to identify the ways in which “my soul seems to have grown” this week.