Spiritual formation: What do you eat?


Where do you feed? I spent a few hours in a class at my church discussing the concept of spiritual formation. It wasn’t new news to me but still a great reminder to look again at my inner life. Spiritual formation could easily be called, spiritual feeding. Before we talk about how to feed on good things, we really need to take stock of the “food” we actually eat.
My counselees come in to try to find how to fix their problems. Part of my job with them (and with myself) is to evaluate their meditational/imaginal life. I need to know what they feed on in order to understand their world and what they care for.
So, what do you feed on? Your wounds? Others’ sins/failures against you? Your successes? Your goals/desires? Your identity (from work, family, gender, race, etc.)? Your weaknesses/deficiencies? Your right to self-determination? Pleasure? Financial security? Escapism? Carefully controlled spiritual behaviors? (It is possible to look at external measures to see how we are doing in our spiritual life. Have I read enough? Prayed enough? Served enough? Sacrificed enough?)
So, where do you feed? One of my colleagues, Charles Zimmerman, once said that what you think about in the shower can give you a bit a sense as to the nature of your god. I suspect that kind of “mindless” time does reveal our feeding habits.

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Filed under Insight, Meditations

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