Good morning…
In a few hours, many of the twelve women on our Friday morning class roster will walk down our weathered sidewalk and through our wooden gate. To the right they will see white inpatients blooming boldly since summer’s start and flourishing ferns beside a row of Hostas nibbled upon by hungry deer. To the left they will see a happy yellow mum whispering through this first week of fall, “Autumn, my friends, is really here.”
Messy. Uneven. Generous growth. This path invites our small group to gather, messy and uneven, committing to notice together, week after week, the generous growth of God in our everyday lives.
“…the spiritual journey was never meant to be taken alone,” says page fifteen of our book. “The whole of Scripture bears this out, but Jesus’ life in particular offers us a compelling example. At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, after praying and listening to God all night, he chose a small community of twelve disciples – “those whom he wanted,” the Scripture tells us. He chose them first “to be with him” (Mark 3:13-14) and then to do the work of ministry. Jesus’ first invitation was for them to be together with him in community, shaped by his teaching and leadership, and he remained faithful to these relationships until the end of his life.”
“Our commitment to community and to spiritual friendship within that community is in itself a spiritual discipline that is of great significance to the spiritual life,” concludes our author, Ruth Haley Barton (Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation).
How good are you at the spiritual discipline of committing to community and to spiritual friendship? Just like our rickety garden path, relationships can be messy and uneven while steadily nurturing God’s generous growth.
If you, like Jesus, were to choose twelve spiritual friends “whom you want” “to be with you” during this autumn season of your everyday life, what names would appear on your personal roster? I am serious, twelve people, whose names would be on your list right now. As you invited these spiritual friends to be with you in committed community, shaped by Jesus’ teaching and leadership, might you also be faithful to these relationships until the end of your life?
“Our commitment to community and to spiritual friendship within that community is in itself a spiritual discipline that is of great significance to the spiritual life,” reminds our author.
In John 15:15 (TPT) Jesus says, “I have never called you ‘servants,’ because a master doesn’t confide in his servants, and servants don’t always understand what the master is doing. But I call you my most intimate and cherished friends, for I reveal to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father.”
Spiritual friendships involve mutual confiding and deep understanding. As intimate and cherished friends, we reveal to one another what we see, hear and experience with our heavenly Father each day.
…Sue…
P.S. If the Spirit nudges, might you forward this message to spiritual friends on your top twelve list, thanking them personally for confiding, understanding and sharing fresh revelations of God?
