Good morning…
In our Friday study, we read these words aloud from Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives For Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton.
Recently I spent time with our daughter’s soccer team at the beginning of a practice devoted to watching game films. We discussed the importance of game films and how it gives them an opportunity to notice mistakes they had made in the previous game (so they could do it differently next time) and also things they had done right (so they could celebrate it and hopefully repeat it). They also noted that it gave them the opportunity to take a step back and see the field from a more complete vantage point than when they were embroiled in the heat of the game. They were able to observe the execution of plays, the overall functioning of the team, the teams when they had good momentum, as well as those times when the energy seemed to just evaporate.
The viewing of game films is very similar to the practice of examen (“Self-examination is a practice that facilitates spiritual awakening – an awakening to the presence of God as God really is and an awakening to ourselves as we really are,” says page 93.) … only in this case we are viewing something much more important than an athletic competition; we are viewing the game films of our lives! We are looking for evidence of the presence and activity of God, and we are deepening our self-awareness through self-examination. As we become more practiced, there are other very subtle dynamics we begin to notice as well that help us to discern the presence of God so that we can align ourselves more completely with God’s purposes moment by moment. We begin to notice those times and moments when we are enlivened by the Spirit’s life-giving energy within, and we also notice times and places where we felt drained of life in some way.
Discernment is first of all a habit, a way of seeing that eventually permeates our whole life. It is the journey from spiritual blindness (not seeing God anywhere or seeing him only where we are expecting to see him) to spiritual sight (finding God everywhere, especially where we least expect it). Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and best known for developing a set of spiritual exercises intended to hone people’s capacity for this discipline, defined the aim of discernment as “finding God in all things in order that we might love and serve God in all” (110-111).
Afterwards we popcorn-ed thoughts. We talked about seeing God everywhere, in unexpected places. We talked about seeing the Spirit of God in the kind, conscientious woman at the Einstein Bagels drive through window who neatly wrapped and layered each individual bagel. We talked about seeing God’s Spirit in the young worker at Party City who, patiently and passionately, spent thirty minutes blowing up balloon for an upcoming birthday party. We talked about seeing the Spirit of God in a young couple who helped one woman get back to her car after she had gotten separated from her friend group after a crowded concert.
Then one woman said, “These stories remind me of the song Angels Among Us by Alabama.”
“I danced with my dad to that song at my wedding,” another smiled in solidarity.
What role then, do the angels have? The angels are spirit-messengers sent by God to serve those who are going to be saved (Hebrews 1:14, TPT). On this Sabbath morn, please give yourself the gift of watching this outdated music video, paying particular attention to the ordinary people who are honored as “angels among us.”
As you examine the game film from this unique day, what angels might you see? What angel might you be?
…Sue…
