Discerning the Right Road

One of the themes in much of my life - you might call it a guiding principle - is to find the correct road that I am supposed to be on.  This has been front and centre at some times and at other times it has not taken on a prominent role but it has always been there if I pay attention to it.

This road has often seemed to me to be a road less travelled to borrow the phrase from M. Scott Peck and Robert Frost, as I have seemed to be the odd-person out in many aspects of my life.  However, I have come to know when I have chosen the right road and when I haven’t usually as a result of where my choices have taken me.  When I take the correct road, it is a step on my journey to become the person that God intends me to be.  There have been many missteps and wrong roads taken as well as correct one throughout my now seven decades of life.  So, given the goal of choosing the right road in my life, you might ask how I know if a road is the correct one.  One of the main ways of doing this is through the God-given gift of discernment.  I believe that everyone has the gift of discernment and as with all gifts it can be strengthened when it is used consciously and intentionally.

There are many ways in which we can discern if we are on the right road.  As an intuitive-feeling person on the Myers Briggs Personality type one way I use is if the choice I made feels right to me.  This can be tricky as sometimes my ego can confuse what my desire is with what my true feeling is.  This requires reflection and assessment of other abilities such as sensing which is not my strong suit.  Occasionally I will have help in ways that are more direct.  One such way is through what is called synchronicity.  This is a concept developed by Carl Jung for what can be called meaningful or significant coincidences.  One example of this is when I had been interviewed for entrance into the MDiv program at Huron College with the intention of it leading to ordination as a priest.  After the interview I turned on the car radio and the program playing was an interview with three people who had chosen to answer to call to ordained ministry later in life.  I discerned this to be a sign I had made the correct choice. 

There are many ways in which we can discern where we are being called in our lives – this is only one way.  What is helpful in strengthening the gift of discernment is to pray.  I was given a prayer for discernment which I find helpful and which I use at the beginning of Spiritual Direction sessions which I lead.  I will close today with the prayer:

O God of all, you give so abundantly to your people.  As we enter into a time of discernment, we ask you to walk with us.  Help us to listen to your voice in the midst of our thoughts, ideas, and suggestions we hear.

Give us the wisdom to weigh options, the strength to accept other possibilities, the trust to give it over for your guidance, and the hope for a holy outcome. 

Your love is unconditional and we know that your desire for us is that we find the best for our growth, health and well being physically and spiritually.  We desire to live a life full of your grace.  We open our hearts and minds to you.  Amen

May you be blessed to discern the right road for you on your journey.  

 

The Test for the Times

 Last week was a milestone in our trip to our cottage to PEI.  We arrived at the cottage on September 3^rd but in many ways the trip was not over.  We had to go into quarantine for fourteen day.  They take quarantining very seriously here and people in that state are phoned every day by an official from the PEI Health Department to confirm that you are still home.

We know of one couple who missed a call and were visited by the RCMP to check on them.  No harm done but their dog thought it would make a break for it and jumped unnoticed into the back seat of the cruiser and was taken for a ride to quarantine freedom.  However, the canine escapee was discovered and brought back to quarantine prison.   

To be honest being in quarantine has not seemed like being in prison for either Lorna or me.  We have enjoyed the days filled with few commitments and we were able to hunker down to the things which we enjoy doing; for me it is being in the bunkie playing guitar and spending time on the computer and doing my daily spiritual exercises as well as reading and having another kind of spirit at 4:00 in the afternoon.  Lorna on the other hand has thrown herself into her favourite activity-gardening.  I have said for many years that the people who devised house arrest as a punishment were definitely not introverts which is what Lorna and I definitely are.  Of course being in quarantine was possible due to help form friends particularly one who brought us our groceries during this time of isolation. 

I was given one opportunity to break out of quarantine which I took.  We were asked by the PEI official if either of us would be willing to take a COVID-19 test.  I agreed as I thought it was my civic duty to help the officials to gain a better understanding of the scope of the pandemic.  I’m not sure if I would have agreed if I had known I would have to drive to Charlottetown by myself – Lorna wasn’t allowed to accompany me.  She is usually my navigator when travelling to uncharted territory, and sometimes even in charted ones.  I once had a dream where she was a back-seat driver but she was in the front seat.  I am actually grateful for her navigational skills and depend on them as I am directionally challenged which I put down to my type with my sensing function in the Myers Briggs scale being my weakest or inferior one (see last weeks edition for more on types).  We don’t have GPS in the car which I am beginning to wonder if we should reconsider.

In any case, last Monday I set off to the uncharted territory in deepest darkest Charlottetown.  All was well until I took a wrong turn or, rather, the highway too a wrong turn which I didn’t follow and I had to go to plan B which was to phone Lorna on our antiquated cell phone and she bailed me out and got me to my destination only a few minutes late which wasn’t a problem.  Once I arrived the process went very smoothly and the test itself was not a problem.  I phoned in for the results last Thursday and yes, I am COVID negative. 

So, we are now out of quarantine and free to fully enjoy the all that PEI has to offer this time of year which will include hurricane Teddy (a most inappropriate name for a hurricane in my view).  Teddy is scheduled to arrive early Wednesday and we can hunker down once more to ride it out if it arrives and the power goes out as predicted.  We were able to attend a church worship service at St. George’s Anglican in Montague on Sunday.  It was a joy to reconnect with some Island friends and to worship with other people.  I will be presiding at the service there next Sunday, Teddy permitting. 

My journey continues – blessings on yours.  

Learning the Language of God

Back at the beginning of the millennium I was trying to discern if I had a call to the ordained priesthood.   I thought that it would be great to have a “Road to Damascus” experience i.e., hearing a voice from heaven perhaps with even a heavenly light show to make sure I was paying attention.  However, I can say that I did not receive a message in any way that was like that.  In the end I decided that the only way to test out a calling was to make a commitment to the journey to ordination.  Talking to fellow students during my years at Huron College, I discovered that no one had that kind of a message either.  Looking back I think that I am grateful not to have gone through what Paul experience on that road including being knocked off my mode of transportation and having scales cover my eyes for three days. 

I did receive affirmation of my decision in many ways but not specifically in a Road to Damascus way.  God does speak to us in many different ways which are not necessarily as dramatic or as clear as what Paul experienced.  One experience I had which I believe affirmed my decision occurred just after I had an interview with the Dean of Theology, John Chapman (now Bishop of Ottawa) as part of the process to enter the M. Div. program.  The interview went well and when it was finished I got into my car to drive home.  The car radio was tuned to CBC as usual and the program involved an interview with three clergy who had been ordained later in life.  This certainly fit my experience as I was in my early fifties at the time. 

This experiences was for me synchronistic—a term coined by Carl Jung.  Synchronicity is, simply put, a significant coincidence.   They can be easily dismissed by skeptics as mere coincidence and of no significance other than pure chance.  However, I understood it as a pointer from the divine that I was on the right course.  By itself it would not be enough to make a serious life-changing decision in life.  However, it was one indication that I should continue on this new path and see other signs God might send me.

I believe and have faith that God is speaking to us in many different ways today as God always has.  However, we have not been taught to recognize them.  Our culture does not generally recognize many of these ways.  We need to relearn as a culture and individuals how God does speak to us and how to interpret what might be called the language of God.  One way which I particularly favour is the language of dreams.  Dreams have been called “God’s forgotten language”—a phrase of John Sanford’s, an Episcopal priest and Jungian Analyst and also a title of his very good introduction to dream work. 

There are many other ways such as Contemplative Prayer, Lectio Divina (Holy Listening), and walking the Labyrinth.  My approach to Spiritual Direction is to help directees to identify how God is speaking to them and to help them more fully experience and understand how God is working in their lives. We are each unique children of God and so we are each more receptive to different way in which God is speaking to us.  For instance, my wife Lorna, whose primary way of receiving information is through the five senses, uses that outer input in her inner world.  She is an ISTJ on the Myers Briggs Type Scale i.e. Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. 

I, on the other hand, am not as in tune with the outer world as many who know me will attest—especially Lorna.  My primary way of receiving information is by intuition, being an INFJ on the Myers Briggs Type Scale i.e. Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging.  This difference means that we are naturally oriented differently to how God is speaking to us.  For instance, Lorna finds walking the Labyrinth to be very meaningful as a form of walking prayer.  The experience of walking the labyrinth does not resonate with me to the same extent.  Rather I find Centering Prayer to be a very meaningful way.

This does not mean that we do not use both forms as a part of our spiritual practices.  I do walk the Labyrinth and Lorna does Centering Prayer.  However, it is not the preferred method in each case.  We both pay attention to our dreams as a way of see if our lives on the course God intends for us.  We both keep dream journals and try to understand the meaning of our dreams or as Lorna says, “don’t you mean the message”? 

The most important thing in all this is to be open to how God is speaking to you and pay attention to the things that you believe God is saying.  This is not always clear and it can be helpful to have someone to help you in that journey such as a clergy person, spiritual director or counsellor.  Blessings,

Enneagram Part 2

 

Last week I wrote about my current interest in the Enneagram typology which I was introduced to in the Spiritual Direction Program I have just completed.  The Enneagram Typology is a personality type system similar to the Myers Briggs Typology which I am more familiar with.  Both systems identify people within a system of types.  I am an INFJ – an introverted – intuitive – feeling – judging type in the Myers Briggs.  Similarly I have self-identified as a nine which is sometimes classified as the Peacemaker type in the Enneagram typology. 

Today’s topic is the Enneagram system so for the sake of brevity I will restrict my comments to it.  The Enneagram system has nine types which each have characteristics as well as subcategories such as wings which are the types next to you in the system.  It is presented as a circle – or wheel with nine at the top.  Below is a diagram with the common classification of each type e.g. nine= peacemaker.

                                                

As I noted the classification system is often presented as shown above with a name such a peacemaker which is characteristic of the type.  Richard Rohr does not use this classification system but rather uses a system which identifies the overriding ‘need’ of a person in each type as shown below.

                1 The Need to be Perfect

                2. The Need to be Needed

                3. The Need to Succeed

                4. The Need to be Special

                5. The Need to Perceive

                6. The Need for Security

                7. The Need to Avoid Pain

                8. The Need to be Against

                9. The Need to Avoid

The typology systems can be helpful in understanding yourself and others.  You are able to better understand and accept yourself and others.  Much of what I read about the ‘nine’ type resonated with me and affirmed what I knew about myself.  For example a nine avoids conflict and have decided to keep their anger to themselves.  They also try to understand both sides of a situation.  As Rohr notes the pitfall of the nines is lethargy and comfort. 

It can be used as a type (no pun intended) of parlour game to figure out what type a personality in the news is.  For example my guess is that Rob Ford, the current absentee mayor of Toronto, is a three.  As Rohr notes unredeemed threes first and foremost deceive themselves.  They have no longing for depth – Ford is currently not engaging in treatment for his alcohol and drug problems while he is one leave of absent to be in treatment.  The immature threes can believe their own lies and the pitfall of threes is vanity which means that secondary things like packaging are more important than essential. 

However, the Enneagram goes beyond mere characteristics and helps people learn how the ‘sins’ of their types can be converted and they can mature into more complete and positive human beings who use their energy in ways that God intended rather than to maintain the ego based position in life.  The root sin of the nines is laziness which resonates with me as I have a tendency to veg out and have to work not to fall into that mode of being.

I will leave it there for this edition and I intend to explore the how Enneagrams can help people to attain conversion and maturity through the grace of God.  If you want to peruse this in more depth I would recommend Enneagram; a Christian Perspective by Rorh and Andreas Ebert or sign up for Rohr’s Daily Meditations in which he is currently exploring the Enneagram.  I can be found at https://cac.org/sign-up.

THe Enneagram Part 1

I am now official Spiritual Directors and have the certificates to prove it.  It has been a wonderful two years for me and I have learned a lot and benefitted from the process not just in learning tools and techniques of the trade (so to speak) but also in experience and appreciation of God’s activity in my life and in the lives of others.

 

As part of the last Intensive we were given a good introduction to the Enneagram system of personality types by Radah Lion who did a marvellous job channelling each to the Enneagram types.  I was actually given a book on the topic a few years ago but never really got engaged by it as it seemed like another personality type system like the Myers Briggs.  In any case now that I have a better introduction to it I can see the potential benefits of it.  I am currently reading “Enneagram; A Christian Perspective" by Richard Rohr.  As Rohr notes it is not a system of self-improvement which would serve the ego position (our False Selves in which our egos are striving to maintain at all costs.  The goal is to move beyond the perspective of our egos and through God’s grace to be transformed more closely to our True Selves that God intends us to realize. 

I intend to continue to explore the Enneagram system in more depth and can see the potential application in Spiritual Direction as well as in my own life.  More on this later.  Peace,

Greg

 

 

 

 

Reply

Forward