Reflecting Back In Order to Move Forward

Sankofa comes from the ancient people in the West African nation of Ghana known as the Akan. The Sankofa bird symbolizes looking back to reclaim our past so we can move forward. The Akan knew how important it was to make a critical investigation of our past in order to move forward in life.

Reflecting on my past has helped me on my spiritual journey. It has shown me places where I missed how God was right there beside me.  It has helped me to discover my true self and take off the masks I was wearing to protect me from the hurt and suffering in my life. It gave me an idea of how much I had really grown in my faith and how God had taken the hurt and suffering and turned it around for good.

Spend some time thinking about your life. On a sheet of paper put a line down the middle then on the top half of your sheet write all the positive events that have happened in your life in the order that they have happened.  Now think about all the negative, hurtful events that have happened in your life and write those across the bottom half in the order that they happened.

Spend time reflecting on these events and how they have had an impact on your life.  Are you seeing any patterns? Is there a theme running through your story? How have the negative events turned into a time of growth? How has God used your negative life events for good? Where are you seeing God at work in your story? As you reflect on your story have you found things that have been buried in your heart?

Catching God in our Every Day, Ordinary Life

The spiritual discipline of Examen is an ancient spiritual practice that can be found in St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises and was often used in the early Church. The practice of Examen is taking time to pause and reflect on the events of the day. Did you detect God’s presence during the day? Did you get a sense of God’s direction for you? What emotions did/are you having today? What can you let go of?

I read a book called Sleeping with Bread by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn exploring the spiritual practice of Examen. I was drawn to their practice of sitting as a family at the end of the day and asking the questions “What am I most grateful for?” and “What am I least grateful for?” 

I decided to set my phone alarm to go off at 8:30 p.m. each evening. When the alarm goes off across the screen of my phone it says “What am I most grateful for? What am I least grateful for?” The first night it went off, my husband and I were walking out to the car from shopping. It sparked a good conversation between us. The reminder alarm caused us to pause and really examine our day.  We had so many blessings that day that might have gone unnoticed if we had not been reminded to pause and remember.

Perhaps you will find the spiritual discipline of Examen a good practice to remind you of all the ways God is right there in your every day, ordinary life.

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