Personal reflection – I think our society today is geared for keeping us from doing more personal reflection. I believe it is getting increasingly more difficult to find quiet time. People spend so much time on social media and consuming vast quantities of “streaming” services – no wonder we have no time to think just about ourselves and our place in the world. If we want to see personal reflection as a discipline, then we need to find quiet time where we can spend the necessary time looking inward and listening to our thoughts — and more importantly listening to G-d speaking to us.

Personal reflection can be defined as paying attention to the inner self. The purposes of personal reflection can be myriad. We should do personal reflection so we can grow in our relationship with G-d. Personal reflection forces us to put aside the distractions in our lives and spend valuable time thinking about our needs, about our strengths, and about our relationships. We can use this time in prayer, in reading and reflection, or just listening.

We should do personal reflection to spend time praying for and reflecting on the needs of others. Again, as I said before, the world we live in gives us many ways to increase our narcissism. Using things like Facebook and other social media allows us to put ourselves out for the world to reflect on our actions, our family and our world. This then gives us the permission to worry too much about what others think of us. Instead, when we do personal reflection, we can think of others, pray for others, and speak to G-d about the others in our lives.

Finally, we can do personal reflection for ourselves – but in this case it will be different than the social media outlets we use today. When we do personal reflection on ourselves, we listen to only two voices – that is the voice of G-d and our own voice. This type of personal reflection forces us into that difficult conversation that happens when we open ourselves up to G-d. But this conversation can also be very cathartic – because there is no where to hide – and this allows us to be honest with G-d in ways we will not be with others.   

During this Lenten season, find ways to do more personal reflection – reflecting on your relationship with G-d – reflecting on the needs of others – and reflecting on honesty and repentance.

Pastor Dave

Soul Friendship is described as “Engaging fellow disciples of Jesus in prayerful conversation or other spiritual practices.”  What is described as prayerful conversation is what Martin Luther stated as one of the means of Grace in the Smalcald Articles: the “Mutual Conversation and Consolation of Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ.” 

Why is mutual conversation and consolation so important for the believer?  It is so important because we need to be in community as the body of Christ.  That is why Paul called it the body of Christ. The body is made up of many parts, and each part must work in concert with the others, if the body is to function to the ability that it should, and can. As such, the “body of Christ”, the congregation and the community of believers is also made up of all kinds of people – all races, colors, nationalities, and genders. 

Therefore, there are all kinds of people who need to be in conversation with one another – because we are all different from one another. To use the metaphor that Paul uses, we are not all feet – and we are not all elbows.  So if we are to understand one another, we need to talk to one another, pray for one another, and pray and worship with one another. And as Martin Luther states, this is one of the “Means of Grace” – or one of the ways that G-d’s Grace is disseminated within the body of Christ. When we talk with one another, when we pray with one another, when we worship with one another, the Holy Spirit is present because Jesus promised to be where two or three are gathered together.

My friends, we need to always be in conversation with one another, as the body of Christ, so we can work as a community to be the hands and the feet of Christ.

Pastor Dave