by Sharon Landis, Spiritual Director
It has been said that spirituality is “theology in walking shoes”. That is, it’s not only about what we believe about our relationship with God, but about our lived experience of that relationship.
Many of us long for experiences that form us spiritually and help us understand where we are on our faith journeys. So often we are taught theology, how we should live, but not how to be receptive to the Spirit of God that loves us deeply, is eager to relate with us and is reaching out to us at every moment.
We are told to have daily devotions, to love God with our whole heart-mind-soul, to pray and read the Bible. So we do, but often find boredom or dryness rather than spiritual renewal. We don’t know how to relate to the God we want to trust. We hide our restlessness, and keep showing up at church, keep serving, giving, often while growing more spiritually depleted. We love God mostly with our thoughts about God rather than developing a relationship with God.
A resource is now available for those who would like to explore a deeper relationship with God. The italicized quotes above are from the Spiritual Formation Christian Education Curriculum available through Kairos School of Spiritual Formation. This course can be used to present basic spiritual formation in a Christian education or small group setting. It is based on the belief that Jesus embodied God’s loving presence in human form and shows us by his own example what love looks like. We seek to follow him and let God transform us into the image of Christ.
The course is a hands-on experience, not just information, and seeks to deepen the life of prayer and nurture contemplative living in the world. It includes thirteen sessions with prayer exercises and suggestions for both individual and group spiritual practice. Curriculum overview, sample session and handout can be viewed on the KairosSchool website:
http://on-the-journey.org/KairosOnTheRoad.html
Spiritual Formation Christian Education Curriculum is available for purchase – Kairos@on-the-journey.org or call the Kairos Office 717-669-2957.