Freedom to Experience God in New Ways.

Have you ever been told by another person “the way” to connect to your faith or God?

I can remember being told to spend 15 minutes in my Bible, to listen to only worship music when I drive in my car, to never miss a church Sunday, to only pray a certain way, and the list goes on. 

There is not necessarily anything wrong or bad about trying these ideas, but it can be dangerous to believe that the way we experience God is the same for every person. It can also be disheartening when you try a prescribed way to connect to God and it feels as if nothing is happening. Or maybe you simply don’t like it. Or you look at a friend who seems to be getting so much out of something, which leads you to question, is there just something wrong with you and your faith?

A few weeks ago, we hosted a “worship night” for Neighbors. The words “worship night” can evoke a lot of feelings of the ways you feel like you should be connecting to God. You may wonder what does “worship” even mean? Is my faith not as real as other’s if I don’t “feel” anything when I sing these songs? Am I supposed to be doing something with my hands? What if I don’t even know these songs... What does that mean?

That “worship night”, we started it by reading a blog post written by Shauna Niequist titled “Expanding the Way We Experience God” (you can click the title to read the blog post) that has stuck with me for years. Shauna shares the blessing that it has been in her life to have a wide idea of what it could mean to experience God and to be open to trying new things. 

Shauna writes, “I think what trips some of us up is the all-or-nothing approach—the idea that if you don’t experience your faith the way you always have, then it’s broken, or worth walking away from. Every relationship changes, and it makes sense to me that our relationships with God change, too, as we grow up and change.”

In the blog post Shauna describes many different “tools” or ideas of how to connect to our faith and experience God. Some may be seemingly obvious, and some less so.

Here are just a few ideas she mentions:

Sharing a meal with others, sitting by the ocean, studying theology, solitude retreats, liturgy, guided meditation, inductive Bible study, Lectio Divina, reading the mystics, travel, silence, serving, fasting, the Prayer of the Examen, truth-telling with your closest friends, meditating on sections of scripture, nature walks… and the list goes on.

At our “worship night”, we began the night freeing ourselves to experience God in new ways and letting go of the comparison of how another’s journey may be different than our own. We asked each other what was something new we were excited about trying. We allowed each other to share, without judgment, how the ways we experience God might be changing. 

So, where are you feeling a pull of excitement to try something new? And where could you offer yourself grace as you expand the way you experience God?