Soul Care Blog

Friday Check-in: Slow down, take a breath, and reconnect with God 🌅 - 11/15/2024

Written by Soul Care | Nov 15, 2024 1:15:00 PM

 

Welcome to our weekly Friday Check-in for November 15th, 2024 âś…

If you are new to Soul Care, WELCOME!! We are so glad you are here. We have a weekly rhythm of checking in together on Fridays. We use Mindy Caliguire's Page, Person, Plan framework to create a weekly rhythm and prepare ourselves for Sabbath rest.

How has your week been? When have you felt the nearness of God? Take the next several minutes to draw near to “the Father of Light.”

Page: An Invitation to Reflection
 
     
We are meditating on Psalm 46 this month, so feel free to spend some time rereading and reflecting on this psalm which carries many important images and invitations that help anchor the soul, particularly in troubled times.
 
 Today’s reading is James 1:16-27:
 
So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
 Spend a few seconds in silence, then journal about thoughts and feelings that come up as you read this passage. What does “be doers of the word” mean for you today?
 
Person: An Invitation to Connection
 
Intentionally connect with a friend or relative to discuss the Scriptures above.
 
Plan: An Invitation to Intention

The theme of this month’s Semi-Silent Retreat was “LOOK”. How might you intentionally LOOK for God’s presence to be flowing in and around you in everyday life? What are some of your soul care rhythms right now that help you LOOK for God?
 
 Take at least 2 minutes of silence to look back...
 
  • What has happened in the past week, month, year that you are most grateful for? When have you felt most alive? When have you sensed God’s nearness? When have you felt connected to God, yourself, others?
  • When did you feel life draining out of you? What are you least grateful for? When have you sensed a disconnection with God, yourself, others?
In closing, bring all to God in prayer: your thanksgiving, joys, frustrations, fears, lament, and reflections. Take a final minute to listen to what God might say back to you:

Lord God, we are your beloved. May we be your faith-full children who are “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” May we be doers of your Word. Help us to look and see You at work in and around us. Amen.
 
 Thank you for pausing to check in today. Blessings!
 

Team Soul Care