Autobiography
The Spirit tells us through Saint Paul: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith." (2 Corinthians 13:5).
This verse has encouraged many to look over their day every evening, to acknowledge their sins and failures, to rejoice in God's forgiveness and to plan the fight for the day ahead. I have also been encouraged by some here at the seminary to take a few days and look back over my whole life, my whole journey. I may now be able to see the ways that God has been working in my past that I didn't see at the time, and this may help me to better see the path along which his Spirit is leading me.
So I have been tossing around the idea of getting a blank journal (buy a new book!) and write a sort of spiritual autobiography of my whole life. My first church experiences, my very first beliefs about God and the process through which they were transformed into a sure trust of Jesus, whom I love.
Part of that story will surely include somethings that happened to me in college, that I am realizing more and more have made a huge impact on me. Two very different, but in some ways very similar forms of Christianity came into my life: Anglicanism (Episcopalianism) and the Charismatic movement. Both were very different than my own (at that time) fundamentalist Baptist-ism; and both were to be looked on with much suspicion. But it didn't work. I found godly men in both places who inspired me to grow in new and exiting ways in my faith. I have been reflecting recently on how Anglicanism has influenced me, and this has lead me to read a book called Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals are Attracted to the Liturgical Church. When I saw the title, I thought: "That's me!" I am still reading it (I may finish it in one day, though!) but here is a passage that really struck me:
"I still remember the billowing incense, the noonday light streaming in, and the joy with which the people and the organ sang together. I was transfixed. All I could think of was Isaiah's vision of God: "The foundations of the thresholds shook...and the house was filled with smoke" (Is. 6:4). It seemed that all of man's art and ingenuity and skill was being called upon to adore and extole Almighty God. Something in my soul said yes to this." p. 98
This verse has encouraged many to look over their day every evening, to acknowledge their sins and failures, to rejoice in God's forgiveness and to plan the fight for the day ahead. I have also been encouraged by some here at the seminary to take a few days and look back over my whole life, my whole journey. I may now be able to see the ways that God has been working in my past that I didn't see at the time, and this may help me to better see the path along which his Spirit is leading me.
So I have been tossing around the idea of getting a blank journal (buy a new book!) and write a sort of spiritual autobiography of my whole life. My first church experiences, my very first beliefs about God and the process through which they were transformed into a sure trust of Jesus, whom I love.
Part of that story will surely include somethings that happened to me in college, that I am realizing more and more have made a huge impact on me. Two very different, but in some ways very similar forms of Christianity came into my life: Anglicanism (Episcopalianism) and the Charismatic movement. Both were very different than my own (at that time) fundamentalist Baptist-ism; and both were to be looked on with much suspicion. But it didn't work. I found godly men in both places who inspired me to grow in new and exiting ways in my faith. I have been reflecting recently on how Anglicanism has influenced me, and this has lead me to read a book called Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals are Attracted to the Liturgical Church. When I saw the title, I thought: "That's me!" I am still reading it (I may finish it in one day, though!) but here is a passage that really struck me:
"I still remember the billowing incense, the noonday light streaming in, and the joy with which the people and the organ sang together. I was transfixed. All I could think of was Isaiah's vision of God: "The foundations of the thresholds shook...and the house was filled with smoke" (Is. 6:4). It seemed that all of man's art and ingenuity and skill was being called upon to adore and extole Almighty God. Something in my soul said yes to this." p. 98
posted by Rev. Daniel McLain Hixon at 5:28 PM
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