When Knowing More Doesn’t Help Anymore
You may be trying to solve a deeper ache with more information. (Gift for you included)
Many of us know a lot.
We read good books.
We listen to thoughtful podcasts.
We underline meaningful sentences.
We collect quotes, practices, prayers, and ideas.
And still, we can feel stuck.
Not because learning is bad. It isn’t. I love learning. As an official “word nerd” I’m learning all the time!
But sometimes we try to solve a deeper ache with more information. I know; I’ve tried it myself.
I’ve learned that we are not only minds that need insight or information. We are embodied, relational, beloved people who need transformation. We need space to slow down, notice what is actually happening inside us, and bring our real lives into the presence of God.
This is one reason I love the Examen.
The Examen is an ancient prayer practice, often associated with Ignatian spirituality, that helps us look back over a recent period of time with God. Not to critique ourselves or analyze everything. But to notice where God has been present, what has been stirring in us, and how grace may be inviting us forward.
In my forthcoming book, From the Inside Out, I offer a simple version called the ABIDE Examen:
A — Attend to God’s presence
B — Bless God for gifts
I — Identify what is stirring within you
D — Dwell on one prayer
E — Entrust the hours ahead
(By creativemahfuz)
This prayer practice is simple enough to use in a few minutes and deep enough to lead to an hour or more of attending to God.
Sometimes a few minutes of honest, prayerful noticing can begin to open something we could not think our way through.
I’ve created a simple ABIDE Examen flyer as a free resource. It’s my gift to you.
Click here to download it directly.
And if, as you practice, you realize you would like someone to listen with you as you discern what God may be inviting you to notice, receive, or practice, I’m offering Thirty for Thirty coaching sessions for one more week:
Click here for 30 minutes of focused coaching for $30
You can bring a decision, a stuck place, a leadership question, a writing or vocational discernment, a relationship pattern, or simply something you’ve been carrying around in your mind and heart.
You may meet with me this coming week, or reserve a session by Friday and meet during the last week of July.
Where might God’s grace already be present in the place where you feel stuck?