Spiritual Practices: Intuitives (from May 14th by Mandy Kampen)

By Mandy Kampen

Last week, our Sunday school class focused on the second spectrum of the Myers-Briggs (iNtuitive and Sensing), which measures how we take information and truth in from the world around us. For those leaning toward the Intuitive (N) side of things, this means that our natural spiritual path is in the world of mystery, symbol, patterns, and awareness. We can see the vision of what can be and are excited about the possibilities. God is Mystery, and we are drawn to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Below are some areas to explore if you are naturally inclined toward this way of being, or if you are more Sensing (more about this next week), but want to explore one or two for the sake of balance. The Divine is all around and longing to connect with each of you; these practices and disciplines just help create the space to do so.

Engaging with the Church

  • Explore your vision for Imago and how we can work toward it.

  • Help us understand the value of mysticism in the Church’s history in our communal practices today.

  • Keep reminding us that what we are seeing in the world today isn’t the end of the story. This could mean creating art, writing music (or a blog entry), or suggesting ideas for special seasons.

  • Pay attention next time you are in a church service - do you sense the Holy Spirit? Where do you feel His movement? When do you hear Her speak?

Prayer

  • Contemplative prayer. This can take many forms. Reach out for suggestions on resources, or spend some time looking into Richard Rohr.

  • Meditation. Again, there are so many approaches to meditation. Whether your goal is a quiet thoughtlessness, focus on a topic or verse, guided, walking, or visualization, start small - even one minute is a great place to begin or begin again.

  • Silence. Can you plan a weekend? A day? An hour? Carving out intentional time for silence creates space for mystery to reveal itself.

  • Prayer beads - more to come on this if you aren’t familiar with how to use them.

  • Use color theory - pray while coloring with colors that represent your hopes, feelings, or fears. Use colored candles or hold a colored stone.

Scripture

  • Daily reading 

    • Read through a narrative book (one that tells a story) and let yourself be curious about what isn’t there. What would the people have seen, felt, smelled,and  thought? What was happening before this story? What happened later?

    • Spend time in five psalms each day for a month - there are exactly enough for a 30-day month cycle. Read them as songs, journal entries, human expressions to the Divine. How do they make you feel? Can you relate? If so, how? If not, why?

  • Longer reading cycle

    • Follow a particular metanarrative through Scripture - themes of kingdom, redemption, view of God, sacrifice, worship.

    • Follow a specific theme or topic - trees, water/rivers, Messiah. What patterns emerge? How does the topic evolve?

Personal Worship

  • Spend time listening to instrumental worship music.

  • Meditate on the lyrics of a song that really resonates with you. 

  • Use your imagination to create the worship scene - where are you with the Divine? How are you interacting? How does God feel about the words you are singing? What might God want to hear from you?

Other Ideas

  • Focus on an icon or symbol that visually connects you. 

  • Look for Truth in fiction - more of this with our summer series!

Church Organizer