Spirituality of Engagement

23 September 2021

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

Praying for a Spirituality of Engagement

We are created to be in relationship with God and all of creation. My relationship with God will be deepened as I engage with others and as I engage with creation.

A person once shared with me that that they wanted their spirituality to be in balance. For this person, it was important to maintain their personal spiritual disciplines of withdrawal to be with God, as well as to adopt some personal spiritual disciplines of involvement, engagement and activity to be with God.

For this spirituality of engagement to develop we need to

· Pray that we will see others as God see them
· Pray that we consider others to be greater than ourselves Phil 2:3
· Pray that we will hear and listen to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit
· Pray that we can accept responsibility for pain, hunger and poverty that we did not cause*
· Pray for formation and transformation as we engage with others and with creation

Questions to ask myself

• Do I care about the lives of others?
• Do I honour God’s creation by the way I care for earth?
• Do I work to protect natural resources?
• Do I treat animals humanely?
• Do I inform myself adequately when making purchases?

*Severson ER. Scandalous Obligation : Rethinking Christian Responsibility. Nazarene Publishing House; 2011.