What Does Your Soul Love? (eBook)

Eight Questions That Reveal God's Work in You

Alan Fadling, Gem Fadling (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
IVP Books (Verlag)
978-0-8308-5820-0 (ISBN)

Infos

What do you really want? What is your soul clinging to? What is getting in your way? In these pages Gem and Alan Fadling outline eight key questions that offer deep insight into how we experience soul change. These questions open the door to spiritual transformation. They help us unpack where we are stuck, where we are in pain, where we are afraid, and much more. They also reveal the path to joy and to the heart of God. Spiritual inventories and exercises will guide you, along with stories from Gem and Alan's lives and their ministry together through Unhurried Living. 'Embarking on a journey of transformation involves remaining awake to a deeper level of reality that is always present,' write the Fadlings. 'Remaining on this journey requires a simpler, God focus. These eight questions about transformation can help us cultivate this kind of deeper awareness and soul focus. These paths help keep us on the journey of transformation. They keep us in the presence of the transforming One.' This practical, personal book offers a path to understanding what God wants to reveal in your soul.

Gem Fadling is a founding partner of Unhurried Living, Inc., a non-profit that resources and trains Christian leaders to rest deeper, live fuller, and lead better. A trained spiritual director, retreat speaker, and podcaster, Gem enjoys serving as a guide, with the intention of helping people encounter God in their very real lives. Gem lives in Mission Viejo, California, with her husband, Alan.

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What do you really want? What is your soul clinging to? What is getting in your way?In these pages Gem and Alan Fadling outline eight key questions that offer deep insight into how we experience soul change. These questions open the door to spiritual transformation. They help us unpack where we are stuck, where we are in pain, where we are afraid, and much more. They also reveal the path to joy and to the heart of God. Spiritual inventories and exercises will guide you, along with stories from Gem and Alan's lives and their ministry together through Unhurried Living. "e;Embarking on a journey of transformation involves remaining awake to a deeper level of reality that is always present,"e; write the Fadlings. "e;Remaining on this journey requires a simpler, God focus. These eight questions about transformation can help us cultivate this kind of deeper awareness and soul focus. These paths help keep us on the journey of transformation. They keep us in the presence of the transforming One."e;This practical, personal book offers a path to understanding what God wants to reveal in your soul.

Autor

Alan Fadling is president and founder of Unhurried Living, Inc. in Mission Viejo, California, inspiring people to rest deeper, live fuller, and lead better. He speaks and consults internationally with organizations such as Saddleback Church, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Cru, Halftime Institute, Apprentice Institute, and Open Doors International. He is the award-winning author of An Unhurried Leader and An Unhurried Life, which was honored with a Christianity Today Award of Merit in spirituality. He is also a contributing author to Eternal Living: Reflections on Dallas Willard's Teaching on Faith and Formation. Gem Fadling is a founding partner of Unhurried Living, Inc., a non-profit that resources and trains Christian leaders to rest deeper, live fuller, and lead better. A trained spiritual director, retreat speaker, and podcaster, Gem enjoys serving as a guide, with the intention of helping people encounter God in their very real lives. Gem lives in Mission Viejo, California, with her husband, Alan.

Textauszug

1

INVITATION

CHANGING FROM THE CENTER

THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT CHANGE. We set out to write a book about transformation, but in everyday life, the two of us have very different responses to change. Alan resists change, tending to avoid it. He prefers to keep things the way they are; he likes predictability as a way of feeling secure. Gem embraces change, even seeks it out. She loves the variety and creativity of new experiences. But we both are hungry for the kind of change God invites us to.

We seek the sort of transformation that would make us a little more beautiful in kingdom ways. We both want the kind of change that is an answer to “Your kingdom come, your will be done in me as it is in heaven.”

SKIING OVER THE SURFACE

Alan grew up in Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento, in a waterskiing family. If the weather allowed (and it usually did), you’d find his family at a nearby lake or on the Sacramento River waterskiing themselves to the point of exhaustion. Alan would often ski for an hour or more as his dad drove them up the river or back. He loved the magic of gliding across the surface of the water and not sinking like he would have if he was standing still.

But sometimes the sinking that happens when we’re still is good, beautiful, and necessary. We’re talking about the stillness and the sinking that need to happen when, for instance, we find ourselves skiing over the surface of our lives, when we let anxiety pull us along and we miss the depths, or when we get in a hurry and run past divine opportunities and appointments. If we would just stop occasionally and sink down, we’d get in touch with the deeper, more significant, even eternal, realities that we want to shape our lives. We’d get in touch with the immeasurable depths of love, peace, and joy that are available to us right now even as, racing along on the surface of our lives, we seek those somewhere out there.

And we are hardly the only ones to long for those depths. Quaker missionary and educator Thomas Kelly (1893–1941) wrote, “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return.” Kelly described this place as “the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst.”1 These depths are always with us. We are a kind of portable sanctuary, like the tabernacle that Israel carried along in their journey to the Promised Land (Numbers 1:50-51).

But too often, in the whirlwind of our thoughts and the rush of our activities, we skim along the surface of life and never experience these rich and life-giving depths. We don’t tap into the reality of this Life—the One who is life who has come to make himself at home in our inner being. This idea is one that the apostle Paul returned to again and again. It seems to be the simplest way of communicating his understanding of the life of the gospel: Christ in us; Christ in me. This is a transforming friendship.

WILLING TO GIVE UP

Early in our marriage, Alan was a pastor to college students in a large Southern California church. We were both in our twenties, we didn’t have kids, and I (Gem) had energy to spare. So in addition to working full time in the corporate world, I partnered with Alan in ministry. We so loved working with that group of students.

One day, a few days prior to our college group’s upcoming missions trip to Mexico, I was getting ready for my day. Out of nowhere a question bubbled up: If, while you are in Mexico, someone sees your camera and wants it, would you be willing to give it to them? Would you give up your camera? I had a fancy and expensive Canon A-1 camera that shot film, so I spent some time pondering this question. After thinking a bit I decided that I could indeed give it up. I was aware that the people we were going to serve had limited resources, so it seemed best to me to be generous.

I continued preparing for the day ahead, and soon another thought emerged: The camera is one thing, but would you be willing to give up Alan? At this point, I was a bit stunned; what does this mean—give up Alan? I soon realized that I was being invited into a conversation with God. Just a few months prior, I had learned about and begun the practice of solitude and silence. I was learning how to listen to God in prayer and not just regale him with my monologue of requests. I knew I was in a dialogue at this point. I couldn’t say a quick yes, because this was an extraordinarily serious question. It seemed to me to be an invitation to hold Alan loosely, to acknowledge that God was in charge of Alan’s life.

I went into my home office to work and for four hours I wrestled with this question in between typing. A couple of times, as it arose, I answered, “I don’t know.”

Soon I was on a downhill slide into anxiety. I decided to call Alan at the church office to check in on him. In addition to his role as a pastor, he was in seminary at the time. He had a class that morning, but I thought he would have returned to his office by now. When he wasn’t there, my worry increased. (This was back in the day of no cell phones and no “Find My Friends” app.)

The question returned: Will you give up Alan? Finally, I lifted my hands from my keyboard and decided to engage this question more fully. This may sound morbid and possibly melodramatic, but I let myself sink all the way down into the worst-case scenario of this question, just to try it on. I pictured in my mind what my life would be like without Alan. I let myself imagine it—a twenty-six-year-old widow. It was horrible, but I knew that I could carry on with my life and that God would be with me and would care for Alan. I took some deep breaths and decided that I could say, “Okay, I could give up Alan.”

Fifteen minutes later, Alan called. Of course, I burst into tears and then explained to him, in detail, my entire morning—the question, the struggle, the resolution. He asked, “How long ago did you say that you answered yes?” I told him that it had been about fifteen minutes earlier. “Well,” said Alan, “let me tell you what I was doing about fifteen minutes ago.” He was on the freeway driving to church from seminary. Evidently the pace of both work and seminary had taken its toll. Alan momentarily fell asleep at the wheel. He woke up just in time to see that he was about to crash into a slow-moving dump truck. Fortunately, he swerved and made his way past with no harm.

We both imagined hearing the Twilight Zone theme and had a moment of being struck by the odd nature of the entire incident. I don’t claim to understand exactly what was going on. I can’t say if I hadn’t said yes that Alan would have hit the truck; I don’t think that’s how God works. However, I believe God was asking me if I would dedicate Alan to God, let go of him and trust that God would care for him. God wanted Alan’s life, in all ways possible, and God wanted me to trust him completely. I had just given Alan completely over to God to do whatever he wanted to do in his life. And, after having been married now for more than three decades, I’m still learning how that works.

This story is just one sample of the ways I have interacted with God on two levels at the same time over the course of my life. Getting ready for my work day, doing my job, and having a conversation about whether or not I will let go of my husband and consent to God doing his work in him. This simple awareness of a deeper level can develop into a lifetime of transformation.

A LIFE-GIVING AWARENESS

Most of us are aware of this inner soul dynamic at some level, but we may not process much of this awareness or, more importantly, talk about it with others. Yet this dynamic offers fuel for significant spiritual conversations that can grow us, refine us, and sharpen us. Paying attention to our soul helps us answer and discuss such questions as, “In what ways is God meeting me in my real everyday life?” and “What can I do to better see God, hear God, and walk with God?”

“What can I do to better see God, hear God, and walk with God?”

A passage of the spiritual classic A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly offers a striking connection to the idea of a transforming life we are describing.

There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings. . . . In a deeply religious culture people know that the deep level of prayer and of divine attendance is the most important thing in the world. It is at this deep level that the real business of life is determined. . . . Between the two levels is fruitful interplay, but ever the accent must be upon the deeper level, where the soul ever dwells in the presence of the Holy One.2

Kelly stirs a desire to be aware of those holy breathings, a longing to dip down into the inner dynamics of the soul. Pause and reread the text. Do you sense a continued invitation of the gentle receptiveness to divine breathings?

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Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.9.2019
• Verlagsort: Lisle
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Moraltheologie / Sozialethik
• Schlagworte: 8 questions • Change • christian living • Christian spiritual formation • eight questions for spiritual transformation • focus on God • journey of transformation • present with God • Soul • soul care • soul change • Spiritual transformation • stuck in Christian life • Transformation • unhurried leader • Unhurried Life • unhurried living
• ISBN-10: 0-8308-5820-2 / 0830858202
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8308-5820-0 / 9780830858200