My Spiritual Journey

This paper is written to share my personal spiritual journey. I will discuss the influence my family has had during my upbringing on my religious and spiritual practices. I will additionally share how my spirituality has changed and evolved over time as I married and now have a family of my own. This paper will describe how spirituality has determined and motivated my personality and the adult I have become. This will help me to expound on how my personal spiritual beliefs will establish a respectful, collaborative, and caring relationships with my future clients.

What is spiritual formation? That is a question many evangelical Christian’s began to wonder as it became a popular topic of discussion within many Christian churches in the past twenty years. Dallas Willard in this article takes a look at that question throughout this excerpt from a book he wrote in 1999. Throughout this piece he takes an in depth look at what spiritual formation looks like in different contexts. He begins with what it might look like for the average person walking down the street, but then transitions to what it should look like in the life of a believer in Jesus. Willard is thorough in giving us what spiritual formation is and even why it is such an important part of the life of a Christian.

1. All the while I was going through everything, something kept me sane and hopeful and that was my faith in God. I wanted to do something that could connect me more to God because somehow I knew he was the only one to help me heal and get back on my feet. And that was when my love for gospel music grew, that I even became a chorister. I loved singing and listening to gospel music and I believe that helped me a lot in finding my way back up.

My journey began with the death of a loved one-my grandmother. At the tender age of 15, I held her hand as she breathed her last. That one memory has influenced all that I have endeavored for.

I find religion redundant and superfluous. Inevitably, my parent's Mexican and catholic values have contaminated me. While attending church every Sunday is not on my to-do list, I do believe in miracles. I do not pursue a religion, but miracles are real. I know this because I am one. My predators are not bullies or drugs. Instead, my predator is hardship itself. I’ve shaken the hand of death and prejudice, but I yet haven't shaken the hand of my college professor.

When I left treatment for alcoholism in June of 2007, the person who picked me up told me I needed to find a church. He told me it was not about religion, but about spirituality. So the search for my spiritual home began. I looked at fundamental Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism and Metaphysics at Unity. I found my spiritual home with Unity and metaphysics.

My experiences with being part of the first generation in my family to participate in post secondary studies has been both remarkable as well as challenging. My father came to Canada as a refugee over 30 years ago and dropped out of school when he was only 16 due to the Sikh genocide that occurred in 1984 where thousands of Sikhs were being killed, raped, and tortured daily by the Indian government. He was forced to work to support his family by working long and hard hours at the family farm. When he finally raised enough money, he came to Canada in hopes of a better life not only for himself, but also for his wife and future children. He worked in a factory when first coming to Canada and finally saved enough money to buy a truck. My mother

The Lord states all things are possible through him (Philippians 4:13, King James Version), this is the motto I find myself holding to at this juncture in my journey as a novice researcher. The journey is similar to climbing a mountain, where the experiences will encompass both successes and struggles as at the peak the finished product will demonstrate an understanding of the process the identifies a topic and addresses the problem. This week I found a reflection wrote in April when I took this course but withdrew due to caring for my dying Grandmother. I am pleased that I did apply some of my advice without realizing, but saddened that some I did not as it applies to now. During both attempts at working towards completing the capstone, I experienced significant life events related to family losses and over commitments. Thus, this paper reflects and compares the advice from April with what I have learned and would suggest in the future. In April I advised myself to make a plan and manage my time when reading material for the research (Klinger, assignment 2017, April). Additionally, it cautioned on the element of self-care and commitments, which would have been wise to have read at the beginning of this

My path currently can be best described as, finding my way on my spiritual journey but with no particular church or denomination. To explain, over the years I’d experienced many hardships and twists of paths in life where I’d question much of what I’d learned as a child. My bitterness and rebelliousness often lead me to feel as if I was left alone and unfulfilled by any type of worship. Although, these feelings have often changed as I’ve aged and most recently my struggles have pushed me in a direction to find myself once again. Also, I feel this class comes into my life at a great time where I’m feeling a bit incomplete and lost in terms of my purpose.

My ongoing journey with faith has been complex. Growing up, I was surrounded by a family full of preachers, teachers, and other persons of God whose highly saturated faith background and deep loyalty to the church shaped my world views. Deeply ingrained into the fabric of my past was devotion and servitude to something I couldn't quite grasp; it was something that I found hard to believe and difficult to commit to.

Chan makes an effort in his book to talk deeply about theology and spirituality and integrate them together. He points to me issue with my spiritual reading. He mentions that our Bible focus on clarifying the meaning of the text first before applying it to life. He points out that spiritual reading should be concerned with the Bible as the Word of God that calls us to God. Therefore, I should change my approach to the reading. I should always remember to have this question in mind when having spiritual reading - “how does this particular text tell the Christian story of which I am a part” (p.159)? Also I have to be disciplined in my spiritual reading to have “openness to God, humble listening and willingness to obey” (p.160).

With each passing day, I began counting them down and marking them off on my calender. In the mean time, as I observed new patients entering the program, I could not help but notice the excruciating extent of suffering drugs and/or alcohol subjected them to. Most of them appeared almost weightless as if they were suffering from starvation. The texture of their skin appeared dried out, pale and wrinkled. The impotence they endured over their drug(s) of choice was obviously tormenting. Likewise, A glimpse into their burgundy colored eyes told practically their entire story as I could virtually feel the pain thumping inside their chests. Repeatedly, I observed storm-like tears slithering down their cheeks as their faces implied how clueless they were about what to expect. I was forced to ask myself, “how much of what I saw was me?” I continued to question whether

“FLY IT LIKE A MUSTANG!” he shouted, so I shoved the stick all the way over and a view of the earth completely filled my right window as we came around. Oh man!

My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is

I would like to reflect on a few key moments of my spiritual journey from childhood that has led me to my call to ministry. I do believe that as the prophet Jeremiah was called before his birth (Jeremiah 1:5) that some are called and know their purpose from an early age while others find their path later after stumbling through life. Perhaps it might be that they have heard the call but were uncertain or unwilling to answer the call. Looking back on my life’s journey, I can see the “God moments” and how they have influenced my faith journey.