Alan Fadling's Blog, page 6

UL 334: How to Honor Your Voice and Trust God in Difficult Seasons (Aundi Kolber)

 

What do you really need? And what would it look like to engage life with a deeper sense of agency and self-compassion?

Today on Unhurried Living Podcast, Gem is joined by professional counselor and best-selling author Aundi Kolber, whose new book, Take What You Need: Soft Words for Hard Days, invites us to embrace the transformative power of kindness toward ourselves. We’ll explore how early experiences shape the way we suppress our needs, why it’s so hard to name and honor what we truly feel, and how practicing softness can actually make us stronger. 

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

✨ How our past experiences shape the way we engage with our needs and emotions ✨ Why self-compassion is a powerful (and often overlooked) tool for transformation ✨ A simple prayer or body practice you can use in moments of stress

Join us as we dive deep into what it means to cultivate resilience, trust, and a deeper friendship with God—even in the hard places.

________________________________

Aundi Kolber is a licensed professional counselor (LPC), trauma-informed therapist, and best-selling author of Try Softer and Strong Like Water. With a compassionate and holistic approach, Aundi integrates psychology, faith, and neuroscience to help individuals experience emotional healing and resilience. She is passionate about empowering people to move toward wholeness by learning to honor their needs, trust their inner wisdom, and cultivate a life of deep compassion. Through her writing, speaking, and therapeutic work, Aundi offers a refreshing invitation to wholeness—one that prioritizes gentleness, self-compassion, and deep connection with God.

A Person's Got to Know Their Limitations

Blog by Gem Fadling

In one of my recent coaching groups, we spent time learning how to craft a rhythm of life. Margaret Guenther, the author of Holy Listening, likens a rule of life to a trellis. A trellis is generally planted alongside a climbing vine or plant so that, as the branches grow, they might attach on their way up a fence or wall. Without a trellis, a vine would be a gnarled group of stems curled up on the ground.

 

When it comes to crafting a rhythm of life, Ruth Haley Barton, in her book Sacred Rhythms, inquires, “How do I want to live so I can be who I want to be?” Tucked within this question is the assumption that choices need to be made. I will have to say yes to some things and no to others. In our group’s discussion, the idea of limitations arose.

 

We typically think of limitations as bad things that hold us back or press us down. We don’t like seeing ourselves as limited; however, as we mature, we come to realize limits and boundaries are necessary gifts. We wake up to the fact that we cannot do everything or be everything for everyone. Limitations can be a doorway to making more discerning decisions. Yes, I can do this. No, I cannot do that.

 

In her book The Fruits of the Spirit, Evelyn Underhill says, “A good gardener always has an idea of what he is trying to grow; without vision even a cabbage patch will perish.” And so we are invited to make choices about how we live, which includes what we do and do not do.

 

Let's explore that gardening image a bit further. If you decided to plant a garden in your backyard, you wouldn’t simply begin to dig random holes throughout the space. If you didn’t hire a landscape architect, you would need to do some research to find out what grows in your region, what tools you need, and what amounts of sunlight and water might be required. All of these would establish the limits for discerning what to plant and how to care for it.

 

Or let’s consider how this applies in the arts. Artists limit themselves by choosing a particular medium to work in. A painter chooses whether to work in oils or watercolors or acrylics, which colors to use, and the size of the canvas. A sculptor decides whether to use granite or marble, as well as the dimensions for the finished sculpture, which will determine the size of the slab they need to start with.

 

These are all examples of limits. And within such limits creativity can flourish.

 

Many of us have plans for daily time with God, and of course this is good for our souls. I’d also like you to ponder for a moment if there are ways to expand on this and to build into your life weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly practices. What kind of person do you want to be? What would it take to become such a person? Certainly, this cannot be left to chance. Nor can the questions be ignored with the excuse “I don’t have enough time for all that.”

 

If you started to feel overwhelmed by considering daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly practices, let’s roll it back for a moment. You don’t begin by tackling all of that at once.

 

Let’s explore a very simple way to start down the path of a refreshed rhythm of life.

 

I highly recommend you begin with practices and activities you enjoy. Remember, we are creating a trellis on which our life-plant can grow. This is an organic process and can be entered into with grace.

 

Ask yourself a few questions and give yourself time to come up with a list of 10-15 items.

 

What feels life-giving to me?
What brings me joy?
What enables me to rest?

 

Once you’ve made your list, circle your top two. These are two holy yeses. Take these two and calendar them. Guard these dates like doctor’s appointments. Then engage with joy on that day.

 

I hope you’ll agree that this is a fairly simple process. A rhythm of life would continue to build on this idea. Begin with practices that bring life (e.g., listening to worship music, scripture reading, walks in nature, gardening, reading good books, sitting in silence, dancing to loud music).

 

Life-giving practices are gifts from God, and I believe they are planted deep within us as desires and invitations to enjoy God’s presence in all its various forms.

 

A rhythm of life is a way of setting limits and making plans so that you become who you were made to be. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. If you are in any form of anxiety, tiredness, or exhaustion, what are you waiting for?

 

Building and engaging a rhythm of life is a big part of our PACE cohort training process. You can go to www.unhurriedliving.com/pace to learn more and consider joining a future cohort.

 

Engage in what brings you life and connect with God through that.

 

It’s good and right to care for your own soul even as you seek to care for others. I pray that you will be inspired like a gardener, painter, or sculptor to create beauty in the form of your own cultivated life with God.

 

For Reflection:

 Return to the invitation I posed earlier and ask yourself:

 What feels life-giving to me?
What brings me joy?
What enables me to rest?

 

Once you’ve made your list of 10–15 items, circle your top two. These are your holy yeses. Take these two and calendar them. Guard these dates like doctor’s appointments. Then engage with joy on that day.

UL #333: The Invitation of a Dry Prayer Season

 

What do you do when your prayer feels dry? When it feels like you're just saying words into the air, wondering if you're actually connecting with God? In this episode, we’ll explore this common struggle, drawing from Thomas Green’s When the Well Runs Dry to uncover how prayer can move beyond effort and become more about encounter.

What You’ll Learn:

Prayer is a Relationship: Discover how prayer deepens when it becomes less about what you do and more about what God does in you.
Our Image of God is not God: Learn how our assumptions about God can limit our prayer life, and how questioning these assumptions can open us to a deeper connection.
Genuine Spiritual Growth Prefers the Ordinary: Find out why spiritual growth often happens in the mundane moments of life, not just during dramatic or exciting prayer experiences.
Prayer vs. Introspection: Understand the fine line between talking to God and simply talking to yourself in prayer, and how to move beyond self-focused prayer.
Beginners Try Too Hard in Prayer: Explore how prayer matures from a laborious effort to a natural, flowing encounter with God, and why it's important to let go of early-stage striving.

Join us as we dive into these insights and learn how to deepen your communion with God, even in the dry seasons of prayer.

Love: The Truest Measure of Who We Are

Blog by Alan Fadling

What if love, rather than success, status, or achievement, was the truest measure of who God really made us? What if our worth was determined not by our accomplishments but by how we love and allow ourselves to be loved by God and others?

 

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and contemplative writer, saw love as the essence of reality. In New Seeds of Contemplation he writes:

 

“Because God’s love is in me, it can come to you from a different and special direction that would be closed if He did not live in me, and because His love is in you, it can come to me from a quarter from which it would not otherwise come. And because it is in both of us, God has greater glory.” (p. 67)

 

Merton’s words paint a beautiful vision of love as something uniquely expressed in and through each of us. Divine love is not static or confined—it acts, it flows, it multiplies. The love of God in me touches you in a way that no one else can replicate, just as the love of God in you reaches me in a way nothing else could. There is something beautiful in the way each of us contributes a distinct thread to the great tapestry of God’s love.

 

Love That Flows, Love That Multiplies

 I love the idea that God’s love flows into and through each of us like a river. The image of a river runs through the whole of the Bible. God’s love doesn’t trickle through a single, narrow channel; it spreads, branching out in ways we may never fully see. It reaches unexpected places, refreshes weary souls, and brings life wherever it flows.

 

But this raises an important question: Are we willing to open ourselves to God’s love? Do we let it shape our words, our actions, our thoughts? Or do we resist, clinging instead to control, self-sufficiency, or the illusion of status (or lack thereof)?

 

Merton reminds us that love is what makes us real. It’s not our accomplishments or accolades that define us—it’s the way love moves through us, the way we give and receive it. The more we allow love to flow freely, the more we reflect the heart of God.

 

The Freedom of Love That Doesn’t Keep Score

 True love does not measure, count, or demand recognition. It simply flows. And as it does, it transforms—not just those who receive it but those who give it. In love’s expansion, there is freedom. In love’s movement, there is joy.

 

So perhaps the greatest invitation is not to strive harder or achieve more, but to surrender to love—to let it move us, to let it shape us, to let it multiply in and through us. For in love, we become most fully ourselves. In love, we become real.

 

For Reflection:

Where in your life do you see love flowing most naturally? How can you open yourself to its movement even more?
Are there areas where you resist love—either in receiving or giving? What might it look like to surrender to love’s flow?
How does it change your perspective to see love—not achievement—as the measure of your life’s impact?

UL #332: 3 Invitations for a Deeper Connection with God

 

In this episode, Gem reflects on a powerful moment from a difficult season in her life when she found hope in a simple yet profound image: a long, dark tunnel with a pinhole of light in the distance. This light became a symbol of God's presence, reminding her that even in the darkest moments, His light is enough to guide us forward. She explores the invitation from Psalm 27:4 to dwell, gaze, and seek God, unpacking each of these spiritual practices and how they bring us closer to Him.

 

Through reflection and personal insights, this episode encourages you to embrace God's presence in the everyday moments—dwelling in His love, gazing upon His beauty, and seeking His guidance with a childlike heart. Tune in and discover how these simple practices can deepen your connection with God and His sacred presence in your life.

In this episode, you'll reflect on:

How can we find hope and God's presence even in dark or uncertain seasons of life?
What are some practical ways to engage with the spiritual practices of dwelling, gazing, and seeking God?
How can cultivating a childlike wonder and expectancy transform our spiritual journey?

 

Resources and Links:

Psalm 27:4  
Psalm 139:7-10
Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present

Four Stages of Prayer: Where Are You on the Journey?

Blog by Gem Fadling

“A beginner must think of herself as one setting out to make a garden in which her Beloved Lord is to take his delight.” (St. Teresa of Avila) 

 

St. Teresa of Avila was a spirited and insightful sixteenth-century Carmelite nun. She loved using everyday imagery to explain the deep mysteries of the soul. I (Gem) like to imagine her walking beside me in a garden, her voice warm and encouraging as she shares her wisdom: Your soul is a garden lovingly tended for the delight of God. 

 

Over the course of her life, Teresa began to experience the richness of prayer more fully. Out of her experience, she wrote about a soul’s growth using a rich and practical metaphor: the Four Waters. 

 

These four ways of watering your soul are not merely stages of prayer but invitations to journey with God. Wherever you find yourself, God is tending to you with love.

 

Let’s explore these waters and see where God might meet us today. 

 

Drawing Water from the Well: When Prayer Feels Like Work 

 Teresa describes the first stage of prayer as drawing water from a well. Imagine the effort of lowering a bucket, pulling it up brimming, and then carrying its heavy weight to your garden. This is the season when prayer feels like work.

 

This first stage is labor-intensive, as it represents our initial efforts in prayer and learning to detach from distractions. We are reminded of the necessity of perseverance. Our efforts are more a cooperation than a cause, and we are transformed as we rely on God’s grace.

 

You might be forming the habit of daily prayer, learning to quiet your mind, or wrestling with distractions. This can feel like work, but try not to get discouraged. Your efforts here are watering the seeds God has planted in your soul. 

 

In this stage, the focus is on showing up. God is with you as you are praying through scripture, journaling, or simply sitting in silence.

 

Turning the Water Wheel: When Prayer Becomes a Joy 

 The second stage is like using a water wheel to draw water, and it may feel like a little less work. As the wheel turns, dippers scoop the water and pour it into a trough, gradually irrigating the garden. 

 

This is when prayer starts to flow more naturally. It may still take intention, but you’re beginning to enjoy the process. You might feel a growing sense of God’s presence or find it easier to focus your heart and mind. Prayer becomes quieter and you aren’t grasping for goodies so much in prayer.

 

In this stage, prayer becomes a source of refreshment. You may notice your garden is greener and your soul more alive. Teresa describes this as a time when the soul begins to collect itself, leaning into God with greater trust. 

 

A Flowing Stream: When Prayer Flows Freely

 In the third stage, the garden is watered by a steady stream. You don’t need to labor at all. The stream flows and you merely dip in to refresh yourself. 

 

This stage reflects a deepening intimacy with God. Prayer becomes less about what you say or do and more about resting in God’s presence. You may notice God’s grace flowing through your day, refreshing you in unexpected ways. 

 

And as refreshing as it is that you are no longer carrying your own water, this stage might still involve difficulties, inviting you to unite yourself even deeper with Jesus. It’s good to stand firmly in trust as your soul and spirit are strengthened in surrender.

 

It’s in this season that we begin to trust God more fully with the areas of our lives that need care. Like a gardener walking along the stream, you simply dip in when needed, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your attention to the dry or weary places. 

 

Receiving the Rain: When Prayer Becomes Pure Gift

 Finally, we come to the rain. Like a Tuscan vineyard that is dry farmed, this is the stage where the garden receives water directly from the skies. No effort from the gardener is required.

 

St. Teresa calls this the Prayer of Union, a moment when God’s love overwhelms your soul. St. Ignatius of Loyola might call this “consolation without cause.” Grace rushes toward us without warning, warming and delighting the soul.

 

This stage reminds us that ultimately our souls belong to God. Just as a farmer who plants and tends a wheat field relies on God’s creative process to grow the wheat, so we tend our garden of prayer but God makes it flourish. Rain refreshes, renews, and brings forth beauty we can’t create on our own. 

 

This final stage, where the soul rests in God’s presence through no effort of its own, is pure grace. Such contemplative union is typically brief but quite transformative. Being embraced by divine love is its essence.

 

Wherever You Are, God Is with You 

 St. Teresa’s Four Waters demonstrates that prayer isn’t about perfection—it’s about relationship. Some days you may feel like you’re hauling water from the well, exhausted by the effort. Other days you might sense the gentle flow of the stream or find yourself surprised by a sweet rain. 

 

Wherever you are, know this: God is tending your soul with great care. He delights in every moment you spend with him, whether it’s in struggle, joy, surrender, or awe. 

 

So press on. Keep tending your garden. God is the Master Gardener, and he is faithful to bring your soul into full bloom. 

 

For Reflection: 

Which stage of the Four Waters best describes your current experience of prayer?
How might you open yourself more fully to God’s work in your soul, no matter your stage?
What small practice can you begin today to tend the garden of your soul with greater care?

UL #331: How to Achieve Great Productivity (Steven Lawson)

 

In this episode, Alan talks with Steven Lawson, creator of the Monk Manual, a daily planner inspired by monastic wisdom. Together, they explore how we can live with more purpose, productivity, and presence, moving beyond the chaos of busyness to truly engage each moment.

Steven shares how we can align our daily actions with our values, creating a life that is more intentional and deeply fulfilling. Rather than rushing through our days, he emphasizes that slowing down can lead to deeper productivity and stronger, more meaningful connections. Steven also offers practical strategies, like the Monk Manual and his PAR method (Prepare, Act, Reflect), that can help us live with greater clarity and presence, even in a fast-paced world.

 

What you’ll learn in this episode:

The difference between busyness and productivity and how to focus on what truly matters.
The importance of living intentionally and deeply, rather than just rushing through life.
Practical tools, including the Monk Manual and the PAR method (Prepare, Act, Reflect), to cultivate presence and find balance in a fast-paced world.

Knowing God: The Transformative Power of Contemplation

Blog by Alan Fadling

Two weeks ago, I talked about how there often comes a point in our journey with God when his invitation is more to unlearn than to learn. This is because growing to know God better is more than thinking abstract truths about God. It is more than feeling God’s presence in some meaningful way. These are good, but they are not everything.

 

In his book New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton says that “contemplation…is an awakening, enlightenment and the amazing intuitive grasp by which love gains certitude of God's creative and dynamic intervention in our daily life.”* I had to read that sentence a few times before it began to sink in.

 

Contemplation is a way of talking about relationship with God and is more than accurate theologizing about God. It is what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he says, “We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Contemplation is focused on God’s beauty and God’s presence. It is a loving knowing that transforms us.

 

There is such grace in deepening our interactive knowledge of God. It is more like seeing God than thinking about God. We sense the work of God’s Spirit deep within us, waking us up and shining his light in and through our lives.

 

In New Seeds, Merton continues to share his insights in a second chapter appropriately titled “What Contemplation Is Not.” He says that “nothing could be more alien to contemplation than the cogito ergo sum of Descartes. ‘I think, therefore I am.’ This is the declaration of an alienated being, in exile from his own spiritual depths, compelled to seek some comfort in a proof for his own existence (!) based on the observation that he ‘thinks.’”†

 

This remarkably insightful response from a Christian perspective to Descartes’ big and philosophically impactful idea was just what I needed at that time in my spiritual life. Because of this basic philosophy, much of Western knowledge has become very rationalistic, cerebral, and thinking-focused. We assume that thinking is the proof of and justification for our existence apart from God creating us in his image.

 

Another passage that spoke to me in Merton’s New Seeds was this: “Contemplation is no pain-killer. What a holocaust takes place in this steady burning to ashes of old worn-out words, clichés, slogans, rationalizations! The worst of it is that even apparently holy conceptions are consumed along with all the rest. It is a terrible breaking and burning of idols, a purification of the sanctuary, so that no graven thing may occupy the place that God has commanded to be left empty: the center, the existential altar which simply ‘is.’”‡

 

Abiding in God’s presence will, by its nature, involve a steady dying process in us, even as we experience God’s life at our innermost places. Dying never feels comfortable, and unlearning is a kind of dying to ideas of God we’re attached to but that no longer serve us well. It sometimes involves sharp pain, and at other times long, drawn-out aches and weariness.

 

The hardest of all is the dying and death of dearly held “spiritual” ideas and practices. What I believe of God is refined in the presence of God. There is a way in which the presence of God starves that which is unreal in me. This is agonizing because so much of these things have felt like the “real me,” when in fact they are a mere shell of my true identity. I am more than my roles, more than my current convictions, more than my ideas about myself.

 

The real me is created in God through Christ. The contemplative journey is about becoming who God has actually made us and unlearning all that this world has distorted in our identity formation. Contemplation destroys the idols that remain, making the temple of my inner life a place of simpler worship and adoration.

 

Consider your own journey of knowing and unknowing, of learning and unlearning. (Much of the talk about deconstruction is, I believe, another way of talking about these necessary losses.) Contemplation is not a quick fix or a comforting spiritual exercise; it’s a continual process of letting go of the clutter of ideas, expectations, and assumptions that obscure our view of God.

 

It’s about embracing the mystery and grace of being fully seen and known by the One who created us in Christ. We can learn to release our grip on the familiar but false notions of ourselves, allowing God to reshape us in the light of his presence. And even in the pain of letting go we can experience the deep joy of being transformed by his love.

 

For Reflection:

What familiar but false notions about God or yourself might God be inviting you to let go of?
How might focusing on God’s presence rather than your ideas about him transform your relationship with him?
What would it look like to embrace the mystery of God rather than striving to comprehend God fully?

 

(Purchases made via the links may provide an Amazon Affiliate commission fee to Unhurried Living. This adds nothing to the cost of your purchase).

 

*Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New Directions, 1961), 5.

†Merton, New Seeds, 8.

‡Merton, New Seeds, 13.

 

UL #330: How Following Jesus Transforms the Way You Lead Others (Mandy Smith)

 

"We do Kingdom things in Empire ways. What might it mean to do Kingdom things in Kingdom ways?"

Mandy Smith poses this powerful question, inviting us to reimagine Christian leadership—not as coercion or burnout, but as a life deeply rooted in the ways of Jesus. In this episode, we explore why so many Christian leaders are exhausted, losing faith, or misusing power, and how confessing our limitations might be the key to rediscovering the true heart of ministry.

Mandy, a pastor and author, doesn’t offer quick-fix strategies. Instead, she calls us back to the simplicity of followership, integrity, and sharing our lives with God in ways that bless the world. Together, we unpack the pressures of modern church culture, the hidden desires that overwhelm leaders, and how we can make space for God amid ministry demands.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How cultural tendencies like efficiency and control are shaping (and distorting) church leadership.
Why embracing our limits can lead to deeper faith, healthier leadership, and renewed joy.
Practical ways to make space for God and soul care in the midst of ministry demands.

Join us for a conversation that will renew your vision, refresh your soul, and remind you of the invitation at the center of it all.

________________________

Mandy Smith is a pastor, author and speaker who, after living and ministering in the US and UK, now ministers in her homeland of Australia. She is a cohort co-leader for the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination and regular contributor to Missio Alliance.

Her books include:

The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP)
Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture
Confessions of an Amateur Saint: The Christian Leader’s Journey from Self-Sufficiency to Reliance on God.

Mandy and her husband, a New Testament professor, live in the parsonage at St Lucia Uniting Church where the teapot is always warm.

Living the Fruit of the Spirit: How to Cultivate Joy, Peace, and Love

Blog by Gem Fadling

A new discovery was recently made in the ancient city of Petra, Jordan. Beneath the Khaznah, or Treasury, archaeologists found an undisturbed chamber with at least twelve skeletons and items made from iron, bronze, and ceramic. This unearthing provides insight into the Nabataean kingdom, which dates back from the fourth century BC to AD 106. What an astounding discovery!

 

This news reminded me of the time we visited Petra many years ago. As we climbed the hill behind the Treasury, we came across a group of Bedouins.

 

We couldn’t speak their language or communicate with them, but I (Gem) do remember their spirit. There was a kind of joy bubbling up from within them. I remember well the way their voices lilted and how they laughed as they spoke. They were quite social and engaging even though we didn’t share a language. They were delightful.

 

At another nearby location, we met a shop owner named Abu Ali, who offered us some sweet tea. He had the same effervescent vibe and hospitable nature.

 

Back on our own continent and quite a few years later, we interviewed Father Albert Haase for our podcast. Although Father Albert is American, he evoked a similar joyful presence. He reminded me of the lively nature of the Bedouins, and it caused me to think about the way we experience people.

 

Maya Angelou famously said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” That was certainly true for the Bedouins as well as Father Albert. I can still recall their buoyant, joyful presence.

 

So today I’d like to circle around this idea of vibe. Whether you have a bubbly or dry nature, whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, whether you are technically or artfully minded, we are all putting out a vibe. When people walk away from you, what feeling will they have experienced?

 

Of course, you are not responsible for how others receive or perceive you. And I’m not talking about putting on a persona as if you could manage this perception. On the contrary, I’m talking about the spirit, life, and way we express ourselves in the world.

 

How do people experience your presence? What is your way?

 

All of this pondering led me to the fruit of the Spirit. At our best, people would experience the nature of the Spirit when they encounter us. No matter our personality type or bent, we have access to the fruit of the Spirit within.

 

This might be stretching it a bit, but we could ask, “What is the vibe of the Holy Spirit?” and follow that up by asking, “How might I exude this vibe?”

 

Since the fruit of the Spirit is a fruit, it is not possible to manufacture or force. It is possible to make space within ourselves for God to express himself in and through us.

 

Communion with God is how we experience the Holy Spirit’s vibe. We learn to trust that the one in whom we live and move and have our being can transform us and our way of being in the world. God is more hospitable than Abu Ali and even more delightful than Father Albert (and I’m sure Father Albert would agree with me).

 

Are you enjoying God as loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, and gentle? If not, it might be good to discern what is blocking you from receiving God as such.

 

Isaiah 30:18 says, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.”

 

This is what God is like.

 

We can also find the ways of God in the person of Jesus. Jesus was present to all who came to him. He listened. He invited. He instructed. He mentored.

 

Jesus might have been busy, but he was never hurried. He always moved in God’s timing, and he shared and acted in ways that were informed by his interactions with the Father.

 

Jesus’ vibe was so engaging that even little children loved to be with him. Broken people and those who missed the mark found love and healing in his presence. And this same vibe is ours as well.

 

Colossians 2:9-10 says, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.”

 

How might the reality of this fullness affect your vibe?

 

Again, you don’t have to micromanage your behavior or change your personality, but it might be good to take notice of how people feel around you. Are they receiving the best of what the Spirit has to offer when they experience you?

 

In this often noisy and contemptuous culture, it is good to be an intentional person of peace, joy, and love. I pray the idea of vibe will grant you another way of thinking about your influence.

 

For Reflection: 

What aspect of the Holy Spirit do you experience most readily? How might a more regular awareness of this influence the way you move through your daily life and interactions?
In what ways do you feel Jesus inviting you to experience and share God’s compassion? How might you create space for this compassion, letting it flow from you as a natural expression of God’s love?
In what ways might you create more space for the Holy Spirit to move in and through you? Rather than striving, what does it look like for you to rest in God’s presence, allowing fruit to emerge?