A Book I'm Reading

This weekend I'm attending a spiritual life retreat as part of the annual meeting of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue. This year we're meeting at a retreat center outside of Dallas, Texas. The retreat leader asked us to read a book by Marjorie J. Thompson, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. Below are some snippets I've underlined so far.

Although we  may be able to point to a single and decisive conversion experience, remaining faithful involves a journey of continual conversion. 

In prayer, we need to speak whatever truth is in us . . . . It takes practice to learn not to censor our prayer. But trying to keep secrets from God is like the three-year-old who covers her eyes and declares, "You can't see me." 

There is no substitute for giving time to the practice of prayer. Like most things, we learn best by doing it. 

Keeping the Sabbath means trusting God to be God, recognizing that we are not indispensable. When we refuse to take a single day a week for genuine refreshment and rest, we try to outdo even God! In the light of God's rest, our anxious, compulsive activities may be exposed as little more than efforts to stay in control, or to fabricate life's meaning out of constant activity. 

If we spend half an hour assessing our life before God, either Saturday evening or early Sunday morning, we will discover a natural bridge between our personal prayer and common worship. 

Personal prayer during the week is even more critical for church leaders than for other Christians. Without it, you are truly courting the sin of works-righteousness, not to mention hypocrisy and burnout. 

We can neither earn God's love nor achieve our own security and perfection. We cannot "fix" ourselves or anyone else the way we want to.