Posts Tagged "spiritual growth"

Refresh: And Every Step an Arrival – The Gift of the Present Moment

Posted by on May 28, 2025 in Blog | 0 comments

Today’s Refresh post, originally published on 12 Jan 2016, explores the thought provoking Rilke line, “and every step an arrival” which serves as an important reminder to note the present moment and embrace it as a God inhabited space. Refresh: And Every Step an Arrival – The Gift of the Present Moment I am presently reading Eugene Peterson’s wonderful biography The Pastor which has on its front cover Rilke’s memorable line ‘every step an arrival’. It reflects Peterson’s own conviction that when all is said and done, the work of a pastor is not...

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Little victories…

Posted by on Dec 17, 2023 in Blog | 1 comment

We sometimes think everything would change if we managed to get a major breakthrough in some troubling area of our life. We long for a slam dunk moment after which success is assured and all will be well. Perhaps its an investment that turns out to be a goldmine, or a new breathing technique that assures us we will be able to say goodbye to anxiety, or a magical combination of foods that mean calories no longer count. We long for that single step which will solve all. And the simple truth is that we are unlikely to find it. Progress in life is most often found through little victories....

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Because every yes is also a no…

Posted by on Sep 17, 2023 in Blog | 6 comments

Some throw away lines stick. I was listening to an interview with Richard Foster of Celebration of Discipline fame and when asked why he declined most speaking invitations he said,”Because every yes is also a no,” and then elaborated that each engagement he said yes to was a no to his wife and family, a no to time alone with God, and a no to the contemplative, reflective person others wanted him to be. Every yes is also a no. My yes to comfort food is a no to my healthy body; my watching one more TV episode is a no to waking early enough for prayer; my yes to a spurious invite is...

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Where our best prayers take us…

Posted by on Aug 28, 2022 in Blog | 0 comments

My previous post noted the passing of Frederick Buechner and tapped into some of his wisdom. In this one I’d like to explore a passing comment which appears in a series of rapid fire advice in his memoir Telling Secrets. It’s:”Go where your best prayers take you.” Why do I love this? First, it’s refreshing to acknowledgment that some prayers are better than others – we have our “best prayers”, but also our selfish prayers, our tiny prayers, our insular prayers, our sectarian prayers, our fearful prayers. What do our best prayers look like? They...

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Conscious incompetence: On knowing what we don’t know…

Posted by on Apr 10, 2022 in Blog | 6 comments

It was only a few sentences in a podcast I recently listened to, but it set me thinking. The speaker suggested there are four stages in the journey towards competence: Unconscious incompetence Conscious incompetence Conscious competence Unconscious competence An example may help to ground this. Let’s say you don’t know how to drive a car. As you watch people driving you think, “How hard can that be? Of course I could do that.” But then you hop into the drivers seat and as the car jerks and jolts along the road, you conclude that you are many driving lessons away from...

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