by guest author Thomas Overlund
In the pleasant breeze of early autumn, walking the Fanno Creek Trail brings solace to a heart full of questions: the ideas that come to me are often deeper, more relevant and inspiring. When walking the disc golf course, I am allowed free time away from the world of competition. I can focus on what I am searching for; a greater connection to my Father and his ideals. When I allow myself to further negotiate these thoughts my faith increases. When I do not, I feel my spiritual fire fading away. Our world of expectation and production pulls the solace of what God gave us away.
Everyone has places, tasks or situations that bring them peace, and it is vital for our mental and spiritual health to find these places, use them to grow our spirit and to help us bring God’s presence into our life at a deeper level. When this is accomplished we as humans are able to overcome obstacles that seem to heavy to bear or too high to jump. These places are intimate and personal.. No two relationships are the same and this is the same as ours with our spiritual father. As we search for these narrow places, start where we have experienced enlightenment in the past.
I have found that the places where I am being spoken to were not obvious but gifted to me. It’s as if these places were given to me to help me recover from a tough work week or deal with a matter which I was unable to bear on my own. These places allow me to Lament deeply with my spiritual Father, and I reckon they will improve your prayer life. Relationships with other people often have certain requirements to be deemed spiritually fulfilling or enjoyable, so my narrow places are rarely shared with others .This doesn’t have to be the case: many of us have people that we are comfortable with at a different level, and we can create a place where we are able to communicate what is really going on deep inside. These people support rather than detract from the experience of a narrow place and allow the soul to be expressed.
As we search for or experience these places and other connections to our spiritual life we start to recognize situations that are keeping us away from peace and the scenarios where we are connected and thus inspired by our father to impact our world in the way that Jesus did.
Serving the Lord is something that is essential for our walk on this earth. After all, we are taught to share the light that Jesus gave us with others and to treat our society as Jesus treated us. Jesus sacrificed for others in such an immense way that it impacted this world to change and to see him as the way a human should live. Furthermore we must follow Christ’s example in spirit and action so we can serve in ways that honor his experience and teachings. Before we can do this effectively, we must create a relationship with our father and sustain that relationship as the anchor in our lives. When we have achieved a close relationship with our Lord, then a narrow place can be a place where we serve God. This is a goal that will allow us to shine the light of God through our service to others, the act of serving doesn’t become a burden and thus lessen our spiritual fire.
In this sense, it is important to find a cause to serve that becomes a narrow place for you and gives you joy to perform. The places where I feel closer to God at the moment are very personal and meditative, but my goal is to grow my connection to my Father enough that I am able to serve others, feel his presence, allow him to carry the burden of tiredness of the work or the act of serving in times of stress or frustration with the narrow places. Finding a personal place where we find the presence of our Father will allow us to improve our relationship with God and thus improve our ability to enact positive changes in our society and community.
The next chapter of our spiritual journey will cover situations where we can grow closer to our community and people outside of our personal community.
Do you have places, tasks or situations where you feel closer to God, or places that bring you a feeling of peace? Share these in the comments below!
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