For readers of Sensible Shoes, who took the characters and the journey to heart. Because of you, the book took flight in astonishing and unpredictable ways, from a self-published version (now a “first draft with deleted scenes”) to its remarkable acquisition by InterVarsity Press. Thanks for sharing the journey with me.
And for my Beloved. No words can express my gratitude for the height and depth, length and breadth of your extravagant love. But this is my offering of love in return. Thank you, Lord. For everything.
Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors! (Luke 2:14)
Companion Guide for
Prayer and Conversation
The setting for Two Steps Forward: A Story of Persevering in Hope is the season of Advent, a season that invites us to keep watch and remain attentive to all the ways Christ comes into our world and into our lives. Advent is a season of prayerful preparation, a season to practice hope—not the kind of hope synonymous with “wishing for” certain outcomes, but a hope firmly rooted in the person, work, and promises of God in Jesus Christ. We are called to be Advent people, to live in a posture of readiness and expectation, every day of the year.
Sybil MacBeth, author of The Season of the Nativity: Confessions and Practices of an Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Extremist, writes, “During Advent we are reminded of the paradoxes and incongruities of life: light and darkness; faith and fear; joy and sorrow; vulnerability and power; weakness and strength; done, but not complete; already and not yet. These pairs of contrasting ideas are not just for Advent. They are the daily themes and dilemmas of ordinary, everyday Christians—the people who believe that an embodied, flesh-and-blood Messiah has already come, but that the transformation of the world is not yet complete.”
This companion guide is not an “Advent guide” (though it could be adapted for use during Advent), but rather an eight-week journey in spiritual formation, using the characters as windows and mirrors for better understanding our own life with God, our receptivity and resistance, our longings and fears, our two steps forward and the frequent steps back. Each week you’ll find reflection questions and a collection of spiritual practices to explore, both individually and in community. You do not need to engage with all of the practices every week. Instead of trying to practice a different discipline each day, choose a couple to practice regularly—both ones that are life-giving to you and ones that stretch you beyond what feels comfortable. Some of the disciplines can be blended together in an extended time of prayer. Ask God to show you how he is longing to form you into Christ’s image and how you can cooperate with the Spirit in God’s work of transformation, one step at a time. Even if you aren’t in the habit of journaling, plan to keep some sort of travelogue of your journey, taking note of what you’re seeing along the way.
Christ has come. Christ still comes to us. Christ will come again. May the Spirit prepare and enable you to receive Christ daily, in the midst of the challenges and the joys, with wonder and gratitude and hope.
Sharon Garlough Brown
WEEK 1
Part One: Keeping Watch
This week you’ll read chapters one and two of part one. Each day, select a reflection question to ponder or spiritual discipline(s) to practice.
Prayerful preparation: With open hands, release your cares and concerns to God. With open hands, receive God’s care and concern for you. (1 Peter 5:7)
Reflection
In the opening scenes of Two Steps Forward, we catch a glimpse of some of the ongoing battles for the characters: fear, grief, envy, self-centeredness, anxiety, discouragement, letting go of control, trusting God, struggling to rest. In what specific ways do you identify with the women? Offer what you notice to God in prayer.
What comes to mind when you think about the word “hope”? What helps you to persevere in hope? Light a hope candle when you pray as a declaration of God’s presence with you.
Mara looks at the landscape of her life and wonders, “What can be born in a place like this?” Spend time considering the landscape of your own life. How are you welcoming Christ’s presence into chaos, trials, or mess? Or, if nothing comes to mind with a current situation, contemplate a past experience. How did Jesus make his presence known? How might a memory of God’s faithfulness encourage you to trust God in the future?
Breath Prayer
Meg practices breath prayer as a way to center herself in God’s presence and to be continually reminded that God is with her. Practice matching a short prayer to your rhythm of breathing. You might choose a verse and divide it into an inhale/exhale pattern. Example: “Be still (inhale), and know that I am God (exhale)” (Psalm 46:10). Or choose a name for God from Scripture and then express a brief declaration of faith, petition, or desire. Examples: “Emmanuel (inhale), you are with me (exhale).” “Author of life (inhale), renew me in your love (exhale).” Spend time listening for a prayer. How is God inviting you to name him? What does God invite you to declare about who he is or what you need? As you breathe, receive the very breath of God enlivening you. Practice being attentive to your breathing throughout the day so that prayer becomes habitual.
Scripture Meditation (Lectio Divina, or “Sacred Reading”)
Slowly read Isaiah 9:2-4 out loud a few times, listening for a word or phrase that catches your attention and invites you to linger with it in prayer. How does this particular word or phrase connect with your life? How does it comfort or confront you? Talk with God about your response to the word, your thoughts and feelings that arise around the word. Then listen for God’s invitations to you. Finish with a time of silence, resting in God’s presence.
Journaling
Hannah spends time journaling about Isaiah 9:2-4. How do you respond to these questions: In what ways is the light coming and shining into places where I have dwelt in darkness? How do I respond to the light and what it reveals? What are the yokes that God is longing to break in my life? What burdens do I carry on my shoulders that God is trying to remove and carry for me? How will I practice releasing these burdens to him?
Community
After walking together for a few months, the characters have come to value the importance of community. Who are your trustworthy companions on the spiritual journey? Give God thanks for the gift of community and for the ways you have been shaped, encouraged, and challenged (even provoked) by others. Then spend time listening to God. How can you pray for these fellow travelers? If you have struggled to find or connect in community, offer your longings, fears, or hurts to God in prayer. Ask God to guide you toward someone who can walk with you.
Rest
Hannah has spent years being overly responsible, hiding behind her busyness, thriving on being needed, and finding her security and significance in her work. Do you regularly practice rest? If rest (sabbath) is not a regular rhythm for you, begin to incorporate designated time for ceasing from work and laying down responsibilities. Find ways to practice delighting in God and celebrating his love. Be diligent in play, in solitude and community.
Gratitude
Meg contemplates the ways God provides for her through the kindness of strangers—even a stranger she was ready to dismiss as strange. Prayerfully review the last day or week. How has God provided for you? Has God worn any unexpected disguises? Offer God thanks for his care.
Week 1: Group Discussion Questions
(Note: If the group is new, discuss boundaries and expectations. Commit to giving one another the gift of confidentiality. Offer compassionate, attentive listening. Group leaders, determine time parameters each week for discussion questions. If possible, light a candle to remind yourselves that you’re in the presence of God together.)
Optional icebreaker: Who is your favorite character? Least favorite? Why?
Discuss some of the struggles that are evident in the lives of the characters. In what specific ways do you identify with them?
Discuss your experience of practicing spiritual disciplines this week. Which ones were life-giving to you
? Which ones were challenging? Why?
Practice group lectio divina. Choose four different readers and read Isaiah 9:2-4, with a few minutes of silence between each reading. What word or phrase captures your attention as you listen? Spend time journaling your prayerful responses to God’s word in silence. (Group leaders: offer twenty to thirty minutes, allowing members enough time to quietly reflect on the Scripture text. When people have finished journaling, ask, “What came to life for you as you prayed with the Word?” Make sure each group member has the opportunity to share, if desired.)
How can the group pray for you as you move forward in hope?
WEEK 2
Part One: Keeping Watch
This week you’ll read chapters three and four of part one. Each day, select a reflection question to ponder or spiritual discipline(s) to practice.
Prayerful preparation: If possible, light a candle to remind yourself that you are in the presence of the Holy One. Using your breath prayer from last week, quiet yourself in the love of God. Breathe in God’s affection for you; breathe out your resistance to God’s love.
Reflection
How have you been encouraged or challenged by the characters’ journey so far? What insights have you gained about your own journey with God? What longings are being stirred? What resistance or fears are being revealed? Offer these to God in prayer.
Charissa contemplates the contrast between Mary’s obedient surrender to the formation of the Son of God within her and her own resistance to formation of life within her (both physically and spiritually). Use Charissa’s questions for your own reflection: Are you ready to say a fully surrendered yes to the kind of Life that changes everything? Or do you prefer a less intimate, less intrusive Presence whom you can follow from a comfortable distance? How are you creating sacred space where the life of Christ can flourish and grow?
Mara struggles to believe she is chosen, loved, and favored. Katherine points out that the Greek word for “favored” in Luke 1:28 means “graced.” In fact, the apostle Paul uses the same word in Ephesians 1:6 to describe God pouring out his grace upon us: “to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (italics mine). Journal about your own response to the word “favored.” What helps you to receive the good news of God’s grace? What makes it hard to believe? Practice standing in front of a mirror and saying these words: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you!” Note your receptivity or resistance to the exercise.
Identify some of your own “how can it be” questions. “How can it be since I’m . . . [fill in the blank with whatever you think is going to make it impossible for God to do what he says he’s going to do in you and for you and through you]?” Offer your wonder, perplexity, and fears to God in prayer.
Truth-Telling and Confession
Charissa and Mara are each invited to name what is true, even when the honesty “sounds ugly.” How honest and unedited are you in your prayers? If you were convinced God would not punish you for being candid about your thoughts and feelings, what would you pray? Spend time writing the words, speaking the words, and asking for the courage to pray the words. Take the exercise one step further by identifying a trusted companion and confessing your honest thoughts, feelings, fears, struggles, or sin aloud.
Lament
Dr. Allen encourages Charissa to name the things that have died: her plans, ambitions, vision of life. “These spiritual and emotional deaths are no less significant than the physical ones, but they can be harder to name.” Hannah also realizes she has some grieving to do. She recognizes that the Holy Spirit is trying to catch her attention by pressing on some wounded places, so she names her sorrow in prayer. In what ways are you being invited to “linger with what provokes you”? Is there any grief to be named to God in prayer? Any wound of sorrow that has become infected with self-pity, bitterness, or resentment? Write a prayer of lament, offering God your honest thoughts, feelings, pain, and disappointment.
Prayer of Examen
Meg practices prayerfully reviewing her day with God, noticing and naming the moments when she was aware of the presence of God and the moments when God seemed hidden, the moments when she responded with faith and the moments when she was overcome by fear. Begin by quieting yourself in the presence of God, giving God thanks for some of the gifts of the day. Then ask the Holy Spirit to help you notice and name your movement toward God and away from God. Celebrate God’s goodness to you. Confess what needs to be confessed and receive God’s grace and forgiveness. In light of what you’ve noticed in your prayerful review of the day, how might you live tomorrow differently? (For a more detailed teaching on the prayer of examen, see Sensible Shoes.)
Spiritual Direction
Mara longs to learn how to see how God is with her in daily life. Spiritual direction provides an opportunity to come into the presence of God with someone trained in the ministry of holy listening, someone who helps us notice and name how God is at work in our lives, with the goal of deepening friendship with God and greater attentiveness to the movement of the Holy Spirit. If you do not yet have a spiritual director, take a first step this week by exploring spiritual direction opportunities in your local community. Talk with your pastor, contact a retreat center, or look at an online resource such as the Evangelical Spiritual Directors Association (ESDA) for a regional directory.
Praying with Imagination
Read Luke 1:26-38 slowly, aloud, several times. Now imagine you are Mary. What do you see? Hear? Feel? Think? How do you respond to the angel’s message? What does your response reveal about where you are with God? Dialogue with God about what you notice.
Celebration
Ponder what it means to be “pregnant with the Son of God,” to be chosen and graced and favored to bear Christ like Mary. Find a way to celebrate the Spirit’s work in making you a dwelling place for the Most High God.
Personalizing a Verse
The words of good news that Gabriel proclaims to Mary are words that echo a theme throughout Scripture: Do not be afraid. God has poured out his grace. Practice inserting your name into the promise frequently throughout the day. “Do not be afraid, [name], for you have found favor with God.”
Intercessory Prayer
Spend time listening. Who is God bringing to mind in prayer? Think beyond a “laundry list” of needs and ask the Lord to help you pray with his heart and compassion, confident that he hears both your words and your silence.
Week 2: Group Discussion Questions
If possible, light a candle to remind yourselves that you are in the presence of God together. Give space for silent breath prayer before you begin.
Discuss your experience of practicing spiritual disciplines this week. Which ones were life-giving to you? Which ones were challenging? Why?
Many of your reflection questions and spiritual practices this week focused on Luke 1:26-38. Read the text aloud, then discuss your experiences of praying with the text this week. Or practice lectio divina or praying with imagination together.
How can the group pray for you as you move forward in hope?
As a way of offering God’s blessing to one another, gather in a circle and take turns speaking these words to the person on your left: “Do not be afraid, [name], for you have found favor with God.” Be sure to take time to listen to and savor the blessing when it is spoken to you.
WEEK 3
Part Two: Waiting in the Dark
This week you’ll read chapters five and six in part two. Each day, select a reflection question to ponder or spiritual discipline(s) to practice.
Prayerful preparation: Spend time giving God thanks for loving you, choosing you, lavishing you with grace and favor. Each day begin your time of reflection with these words: “Do not be afraid, [name], for you have found favor with God.”
Reflection
Hannah talks about her tendency to compare and measure her own suffering against what others endure, telling herself she “shouldn’t feel bad because so-an
d-so has it so much worse.” Have you ever been tempted to deny or minimize your own pain? Why? What was the result? Make an offering of any buried, potentially toxic pain to God in prayer.
When Hannah tells Nathan she is going to practice fasting from something that gives her joy, he challenges her. For Hannah, feasting is more difficult than fasting, and Nathan believes she will derive greater spiritual benefit from practicing celebration than practicing self-denial. What about you? Are you more practiced with feasting or fasting? What might God be calling you to practice right now? What do you hope the fruit will be?
Some of the characters are experiencing significant stress and conflict in relationships. Are there any relationships in your life that need particular attention and prayer right now? What active steps toward reconciliation are possible or necessary? Is there anyone alongside you to offer support and encouragement in the midst of stress? What truth are you being invited to speak—to God, others, yourself?
Or, if you are not in the midst of conflict, who is God calling you to walk alongside during a difficult season? How will you pray, listen, keep watch, and trust God’s coming in the midst of the mess?
Read John 1:20. Think about any ways in which you have tried to be the Messiah, the rescuer. What is at the root of the impulse to intervene and try to manage God’s world for him? Write a resignation letter to God. If comfortable, read your resignation letter aloud to your group or to a trusted friend.
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