More autobiography in outline form

This entry follows on after the 2/6/2011 blog entry about what I said in a spiritual autobiography for the meeting two weeks ago.

Short on time, I skipped:
My call to return to the Northwest
The years in one of the small meetings in College Park Quarterly Meeting
A year in therapy
Firbank Farm

I did speak about my journey to being a Christian and what God has opened to me.
•    Grandma’s serene and helpful history in her Presbyterian church
•    Friends’ School classes in Human Studies
•    High school friends in the charismatic movement
•    Seeking to experience that of God within me and others
•    His reassurance: I’ve been here all along.
•    YF’s I met on the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage, Elfrida, the Wilsons, Lionel, the 1652 country
•    my brother’s challenges to honestly engage with the issues of Christian myth and spirituality
•    reading the YFNA newsletter
•    Ben’s invitation to fellowship with WYF Christians
•    All your strength and cleverness is nothing next to my loving power; even so, my help is there for the everyday challenges you face.  This is salvation.
•    Never mind their conduct, love other people–gay and straight.
•    Go west.  I’ll help you get there.
•    Come into God’s presence with singing and thanksgiving–into his courts with praise; help others to do that.
•    Settle here. 
•    I am and was Jesus.
•    Learn every day from the process of raising a family and being in a meeting.
•    I may ask difficult things of you–as hard as giving your son for sacrifice or pulling your heart from it’s protection.
•    You, your meeting and the place you’re in are enough; simple silence is all that is needed to hear My voice. 

I especially wish that I’d had the presence of mind and time to include these two important experiences:
∙    The call to be married and to raise children.
∙    Basic daily, weekly, spiritual growth.  Learning to make a marriage, parenting, relationships, a job and programs work.   Growing in love and growing emotionally is growing in God and growing spiritually.

I also wanted to talk more about what I’m learning and how I’m growing:
∙    I’m helping to write the next Faith & Practice for my yearly meeting.  It’s a challenge to speak with the yearly meeting when my experience and expression are on the Christian edge of it.
∙    I did some study and experiments with prayer.  They’ve been helpful.
∙    I’m learning to be more in touch with God as I work.
∙    I’m learning to worship with others.  Rex Ambler’s writings in Light To Live By are helpful in prayer alone and worship together.
∙    I care a great deal about group discernment.  I like working with new ways to do this within the guides provided by Friends’ traditions and the Lord’s leading.
∙    Reading blogs and blogging: Finding the right relation between an overactive mind and a true listening heart.
∙    Keeping low.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 7, 2011 at 10:08 and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.