Lisa Colón DeLay | Spiritual Formation and the Way of the Desert Elders
Resources, Guidance, Products, and Services for personal growth, spiritual formation, and community connection
Starting February 2013 there will be a learning and friendship group (a.k.a. The Cadre) with the public hub here www.facebook.com/TheCadre360. Spaces are limited for the core group, but all are welcomed to request admittance and view the public fulcrum The Cadre 360.
I invite you to learn more by clicking the tab (The Cadre) above also.
Right after we feast like mad and express our gratitude and thankfulness we charge out to buy and shop! I’ve always thought this was the strangest thing…But, the sales do seem unbeatable, right?
Confession: I can’t handle the bustle. I grow weary so fast from shopping, let alone doing it amid crowds and while fighting chock-a-block traffic. What about you?
Perhaps Cyber Monday is a different kind of bustle?…nevertheless….
Here’s a secret! If you DON’T have a kindle or a kindle app, you can still click to buy, and Amazon houses them for you, for whenever you want them, on which ever device you choose. So, if you’re getting a kindle for Christmas, click to get them now, and enjoy them later.
I do hope you enjoy them.
If you would please leave an Amazon review, I would be most grateful! I have lots of people reading, but hardly anyone leaving reviews yet. So, I need your help!
Season’s Blessings!
-Lisa
P.S. Spread this good news with a Tweet or two, please?
(If you miss your chance, don’t fret. Each is only $3. Way less than a latte at Starbucks. Amazon lets you read sample pages. Try each one and see what you like!)
This is my son Nathan.
He’s 12.5 years old.
It’s been a rough few days with him. It’s a dicey combo mixing burgeoning adolescence and the Autistic experience.
His will is strong and he’s often unreasonable. He thinks he’s the rightful King of his world and ours; and I’ve felt discouraged about how poorly things have been going.
And it gave me a new one.
What’s the bigger lesson here?
What if our windows of perspective are cloudy?
What if the shutters are closed?
Will I even be able to notice how poor my vision is?
And how can I get help seeing better?
It’s true that our perspective is limited.
The fact is easy to miss.
We flare with emotion in the dearth of comprehending how perspective works, or doesn’t work.
But, indeed, we can’t possibly see the full view, just the narrow vision our particular spectacles allow.
Unwittingly, Nathan gave me the encouragement I needed.
This is actually an answer to my prayer for help.
Keep pushing on and Remember the lesson of the Lego Spectacles!
Today I have the honor of being a guest at Ed Cyzewski’s blog. As a new proud daddy Ed is taking a paternity leave, but he’s planned a bunch of guest writers to keep us happy readers.
I’ve contributed a piece about the time I outgrew my small group, entitled, “Seasons of Belonging”.
Even though the misfit made belonging difficult it finally created the atmosphere for personal change and the beginning of a new journey.
Enjoy!
Photo Credit: Fabio Pierboni via Compfight (brothel menu)
On Sunday, I heard someone say, “Sometimes when I pray, I don’t feel anything.”
Has this happened to you? It has for me.
There’s no magic. It’s like talking to the wall.
“Blah blah blah. meh.”
Sometimes we approach prayer and other spiritual practices with certain expectations, right? We want an experience or we hope for some immediate return for our effort. It shouldn’t be dull, we think. It shouldn’t be lifeless.
In trying to connect with God we wonder if it’s really a two way street.
Maybe it’s the same thing we wonder in our other relationships. Am I doing all the rowing on this boat?
In this, I’m reminded of the lessons from my seminary professor who made a point to tell us that Yahweh switched things up on his people–most of the time. No victory was won the same way twice. Was God pushing the limits of their expectations? Probably.
I wonder if these variances happened precisely because God is personal. I wonder if God is always the same by way of consistently changing: A characteristic of a living God and ongoing relationship. Usually personal beings resist manipulation, right?
What happens when we want something to be predictable…a sure thing? A wife and a prostitute can do the same horizontal function, but there’s something about doing it for cash changes the whole thing…a lot, I assume. The latter is less a relationship and more of a phlegmatic transaction with the veneer of allure. The outcome is very predictable. Hence, relationship as a commodity has a dehumanizing (or depersonalizing) consequence. (Refer to the above image posted outside a brothel. It’s a menu.)
Isn’t it spiritually healthier for us when God shows us that he’s not coin operated or predictable, but rather relational and multifaceted? We wouldn’t want to be treated like a vending machine either, so maybe it makes sense that God would “keep things fresh”. Strangely, God risks frustrating us to foster growth.
If you’re feeling like you’re “praying to the wall” lately, realize that you are the verge of a growth-enhancing switcheroo…better named: a new movement of the divine. Be on the look out for it.
Oh, and when you spot it then it’ll change again soon.
Through this God shows us that he’s intricate and personal, not static and mechanized. He draws us into something deeper. He gives us something for an advancement of faith, sight unseen.
Where are you right now?
On the verge of change or knee-deep in a fresh one?
Thoughts or comments?
