It Actually Counts (from April 9th by Mandy Kampen)
By Mandy Kampen
Have you ever heard of a “quiet time?”
How about inductive Bible study? The ACTS prayer? Is God a morning person, and should our devotional time always start our day?
Were you ever taught that yoga was dangerous? Can that truth only come from the Bible? Was using physical tools - like candles or prayer beads - idolatry?
Yeah, me too.
I’ve heard so many opinions on right and wrong ways to connect with the Divine, and most of them have felt restrictive. Limited. Lifeless. I spent decades feeling guilty because I would try my very hardest to follow the formula:
Has to be early morning - an immediate failure point for me.
Should be the same place, time, and duration every day - I despise routine.
First, read your Bible with highlighters, pens, and a journal nearby. A reading plan to get through it in a year is a standard default approach - how stifling.
Then pray, using whatever structure works for you - feels like talking to the walls most of the time.
Definitely end with praise, worship, and gratitude - not even sure what this means.
I failed at spending time with God almost every day. I found a connection with Him in all sorts of other ways - talking with friends, music, shows, and books, watching the wind in the trees, interacting with critters and creatures, writing stories about what happened before or after the events in a Bible passage. But those didn’t count, because they were all icing on the Quiet Time Cake. Without the cake, icing just means a bellyache, right?
I found freedom in a book called Invitation to a Journey, in which the author explained that the quiet time most of us were taught was developed by a specific kind of person - pastors and other spiritual leaders. And many of them were wired similarly. But, based in part on Carl Jung and the Myers-Briggs personality assessment tool, the reality is that those folx represent 1/16 of how people can be wired.
What if we are each uniquely created to encounter God naturally, easily, as breathing? What if, by learning more about how we interact with the world, we can identify the practices that are actually life-giving to us?
As we announced on Easter, we are starting a new adult class this coming Sunday, April 12th. I’m so excited to see this class reemerge, as it was a staple of our community for some time before COVID. We’ll be looking at the different preferences measured by Myers-Briggs, what they tell us about ourselves and each other, and most importantly, what that means for our spiritual journeys. We’ll talk about the difference between practices and disciplines. And we’ll take some time each week to practice together. These will be low-pressure, but maybe different than anything you’ve done before. So be brave, be curious, and join us on our journey.
As a note, you don’t need to know your Myers-Briggs preferences, but if you’d like to take a quick, unofficial but helpful quiz, you can do so here: Personality test based on Jung and Briggs Myers typology (humanmetrics.com).