{"id":133,"date":"2012-05-13T18:41:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T00:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/fathertime\/?p=133"},"modified":"2012-05-13T18:42:30","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T00:42:30","slug":"a-spiritual-sense-of-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/?p=133","title":{"rendered":"A Spiritual Sense of Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’ve mentioned before how great I think Radnor Lake<\/a> is. I love having such a beautiful natural area so close at hand here in Nashville. A few weeks ago, I finally managed to take the girls hiking at Radnor Lake, after two trips entirely focused on riding bikes. And by “hiking” here, I mean walking along well-marked paths. The girls enjoyed themselves, as did I, although I ended up carrying Lily’s hiking gear (a bright pink purse and a plastic princess crown) most of the way.<\/p>\n

That “hiking” experience came to mind two Sundays ago, when Ian Cron<\/a> gave a guest sermon at church to kick off our new series on the Pslams. Cron spoke on the power of meditation and he led us through a brief mediation in the lectio divina <\/em>tradition<\/a>. We read Psalm 25, listening for a word or phrase that grabbed our attention (lectio <\/em>= reading). Then we repeated that word or phrase to ourselves, reflecting on its meaning (meditato<\/em> = meditation). Next we prayed about the meaning of this word or phrase for our lives (oratio<\/em> = prayer). Finally, we simply rested in God’s love (contemplatio<\/em> = contemplation).<\/p>\n

What phrase from Psalm 25 caught my attention? The one about hiking.<\/p>\n

4 <\/sup>Show me your ways, Lord,
\nteach me your paths<\/strong>.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>Guide me in your truth and teach me,
\nfor you are God my Savior,
\nand my hope is in you all day long.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When the girls and I were hiking in Radnor Lake, we had the luxury of following paths that others had laid out for us. Every now and then as we walked, we could come to an intersection, and I had to decide which path to follow. I had a goal to stick to the shore of the lake and some guidance in the form of a map, and so selecting the right path at these choice-points wasn’t too hard.<\/p>\n

Navigating my life isn’t quite so easy. I’m faced with hundreds of choices each day, choices that have both practical and spiritual consequences. I want to do what is right, to obey God, to be a Godly father to my two girls. But it’s not always clear what choices lead to those outcomes.<\/p>\n

As we meditated and prayed two Sundays ago, I asked God to teach me his paths, to develop within me a spiritual sense of direction so that I can make good choices in my life, so that I can walk along the paths that He intends for me. I can’t think my way through some of these intersections–I have to be open to His leading. I have to trust Him to nudge me towards that paths that leads me closer to Him. These paths may not always be tactically sound by the world’s standards, but I want to follow them anyway.<\/p>\n

4 <\/sup>Show me your ways, Lord,
\nteach me your paths<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(By the way, Ian Cron’s entire sermon<\/a> is available to watch over on the Rolling Hills website. I highly recommend it. You can also see my sketchnotes of the sermon<\/a> for a quick overview.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Image: “Down the Path<\/a>,” by me, Flickr (CC)<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve mentioned before how great I think Radnor Lake is. I love having such a beautiful natural area so close at hand here in Nashville. A few weeks ago, I finally managed to take the girls hiking at Radnor Lake, after two trips entirely focused on riding bikes. And by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,25,12],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-decisions","tag-faith","tag-fresh-air","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derekbruff.org\/blogs\/disfordad\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}