Archive for March 17th, 2007
notes from the edge of the river – V on “spiritual reflection”
These writings were from my solo vacation to a little red caboose cabin near Bandera, Texas this past week. A long weekend of relaxing, reflection and exploration.
A quote from the Barclay Press blog:
But my life is lacking when I’m not part of a greater cause, and living only for myself or my “own spiritual growth”.
I had to laugh when I read this line. Lately that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. And there is defintely a sense that there’s only so far it will take you. I feel I won’t really begin to understand God and my relationship with him until I get out there and practice what I sit around thinking about. It’s easy to forget that we experience God so much through other people, which of course means you have to be around them.
During my weekend of reflection, I took the C. S. Lewis book Weight of Glory. Amazing collection of essays. When I first read the below quote I was offended, but it doesn’t take long to realize how right he is!
The attempt to discover by introspective analysis our own spiritual condition is to me a horrible thing which reveals at best, not the secrets of God’s spirit and ours, but their transpositions in intellect, emotion, and imagination, and which at worst may be the quickest road to presumption or despair.
How true, how true. Of course it’s the kind of thing you have to do to fully understand the limitations of it – so not a total loss 
And, being the hyper thinker that I am, I’m sure these to wise men won’t stop me. It will however certainly add other elements into my quest.
I also decided to leave my “weekend of refelction” a day early. I’m still not sure if it was the quote or the lack of city noises – but I felt very ready to move on!
