This week, I’m enjoying some good reading, reflection and writing in preparation for a four-day retreat I’ll facilitate this extended weekend for a group of college ministry leaders.
This morning, I’ve been reading a little pamphlet by Douglas Steere titled The Hardest Journey. It is a presentation he gave in 1968 here in Southern California (at Whittier College) on the cost of spiritual renewal. I’ve had it in my library, but ran across when referring to one of his other titles on the theme of retreat–Time to Spare.
Steere mentions a question asked by another Quaker:
“Have you ever had a moment of awe and glory that has cloven your life asunder and put it together again forever different than it was before?”
What a question! For me, there have been a few moments like that in my spiritual journey. The one that came to mind first, though, was the event that is recorded on page 1 of my current journey. That entry is dated January 20, 1990 and it was a description of my experience of solitude, silence and prayer led by Wayne Anderson as part of the Fuller course Paul Jensen taught that Winter 1990 quarter. God opened my life wide that day, spoke needed words of compassion and admonition, and began to put me back together in a way that has changed the course of the last eighteen years.
Have you ever had such a moment? When was it? How did God take you apart? How did He put you back together?
[...] POST: “Forever Different” [...]
Hi Alan, Any ideas about where that pamphlet might be found/purchased/obtained? It sounds really interesting but I haven’t seen that title among his other published writings.
Good evening, Mike. Thankfully, many of these Pendle Hills pamphlets have been produced as downloadable PDF docs. You can get “The Hardest Journey” via this link. Thanks for asking.