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Time for some spiritual spring cleaning?
God is present in every season—in winter’s darkness and in the newness of spring.
While the calendar has thankfully done us the favour of announcing that spring is here, the cold of winter may continue to hang around like a lingering guest reluctant to leave the party.
I’m not certain how actively the tradition of spring cleaning is practiced these days, but in times past it probably made sense that as warmer days approached we felt the desire to refresh our homes. If families had hunkered down for winter, possibly living communally in the room where a fireplace offered heat, spring cleaning celebrated the approach of longer days, matched with a desire to make way for the new.
I find it helpful to think of how the cycle of seasons that occurs in nature is similarly matched by seasons in our spiritual lives. Think about the times of joy and lightness that feel like a summer in our soul. We are warm and confident, with a lightness of spirit. Conversely, we know there are times of darkness when we’re heavy laden, when God seems absent and when we’re looking longingly for signs that our prayers are in the process of being answered. We long to see a sign that something new may be on its way.
The benefit of thinking seasonally is the reminder that every season is necessary and yield benefits. God is actively present in every season of nature, just as he is in every season of our faith experience. When I see a tree that has shed its leaves and stands starkly against the sky in the middle of winter, I know it is living, even though it looks dead. When we hit what feels like winter in our spiritual journey, we can be sure there’s still a whole lot of divine activity occurring that will soon be revealed.
Last month, a five-day ‘Sounds of Silence’ spiritual retreat took place in the Wairarapa. Sixteen people took the opportunity to step out of the traffic of their regular responsibilities to focus on quality time in God. With the aid of daily teaching, expanses of free time, the opportunity to enjoy the ruggedness of the environment and progressively longer periods of communal silence, each participant experienced significant encounters with God.
On arrival, many of those who came to this retreat described their current weariness and longing for refreshing. In the process of being on retreat God began to answer that prayer.
Here’s the deal: we are each responsible for the vibrancy of our own spiritual life. For some of us, going on retreat is a necessary annual practice to sustain our spiritual health. Others find that mindful withdrawal for shorter periods and more regularly is most effective. It’s not so much how we retreat as that we retreat which makes the difference.
In his book Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard says: ‘Our soul is like a stream of water that gives strength, direction and harmony to every other area of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exuberant in all we do because our soul itself is then profusely rooted in the vastness of God and his kingdom, including nature; and all else within us is enlivened and directed by that stream. Therefore we are in harmony with God, reality, and the rest of human nature and nature at large.’
Conversely, when the soul is suffering from the toxic consequences of living in the 21st century, we can adopt the same strategy as when we get physically sick. Because we desire health, we’ll attack the sickness in multiple ways: medicine, exercise, rest, healthy eating, and whatever else the medical professionals tell us we must do. Sickness of the soul requires intentionality, energy and action. It also requires honesty about the seriousness of our condition. The soul whose health is not consistently fought for will erode spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and in every other way.
John Ortberg’s book and DVD curriculum Soul Keeping focuses on how we can care for ourselves by attending to the debris that inevitably accumulates as the seasons of our lives progress. Just as the fallen leaves of autumn block the drains and lead to flooding in the first downpour of winter, we too suffer when the debris from the past blocks the free flowing stream of God’s life flowing into us.
The Bible often tells us to get rid of anything that prevents us from fully enjoying the beauty of each new season. Sounds to me like it could be spring cleaning time!
Major Heather Rodwell is Territorial Secretary for Corps Growth and Spiritual Life Development.
by Heather Rodwell (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 5 September 2015, pp11.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.