Forgiveness
Hannah remembers wounding Mara by manipulating her into self-disclosure and asks for her forgiveness. Ask God to bring to mind anyone you have wounded by your sin. If you have the opportunity to ask forgiveness, seek to do so. If you resist asking for forgiveness, ask for God’s light to illuminate the reasons why. Pray for courage to practice humility and vulnerability.
Play
Spend time remembering how you enjoyed playing as a child. Practice entering the kingdom of God like a child by re-creating a favorite memory of play. Or, if nothing comes to mind, imagine a time of play that would bring you joy. Make it happen, in solitude or in community.
Waiting
One of the common ways God forms us is through our waiting. If you find it difficult to wait—if, like Nathan, you find yourself battling impatience while waiting—look for opportunities to practice waiting well. If you choose to wait in the longest line at the grocery store, don’t distract yourself with a phone or magazine while you wait. Use the wait time to be attentive to the presence of God. What would God have you notice about the people around you? How might you pray for them? Offer a word of kindness? Provide a simple act of service? Practice prayerfulness in the waiting times. Keep a record of what you notice about your waiting.
Study
Read Romans 5:1-5. What does Paul say about peace, grace, and hope? What does he mean by “boasting”? What is the purpose and the fruit of suffering in our lives? The role of the Spirit? Using a concordance or Greek lexicon, do a word study of the text (suffering, endurance, character, hope, etc.). Which words capture your attention? Why? What challenges you? Comforts you? When you have finished studying the text, spend time praying with it. What is God revealing to you?
Worship
Is weekly worship with a group of believers an important part of your life with God? Why or why not? Spend time thinking about motivation and desire. If you have avoided worshiping in community, talk with God about the reasons why.
Written Prayers
Hannah decides to read and pray with hymn texts, many of which are theologically rich and well suited for prayer. If you typically offer spontaneous prayers, try praying with written words, either from a hymnal or a prayer book, like the Book of Common Prayer. What do you notice about using the words of others in prayer?
Guidance
God promises to supply wisdom when we lack it (James 1:5), to counsel us with his eye upon us (Psalm 32:8), to direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6), to speak with a Shepherd’s voice (John 10:27). How do you receive guidance from God? What is the role of community in the process? What Scripture texts are significant to you as you think about being guided by God? If you are currently seeking guidance, think about a past experience of seeking God for direction. How did God reveal his way to you? Does your current experience share anything in common with your past experience? Journal your insights.
Scripture Meditation (Lectio Divina)
Read John 1:1-9 out loud slowly and prayerfully, several times. What word or phrase captures your attention and invites you to ponder it? How does this word or phrase connect with your life? What feelings or thoughts arise concerning this word? Offer your response to God in prayer; listen for God’s invitation and response to you. Finish with a time of silence, resting in the presence of God.
Week Three: Group Discussion Questions
If possible, light a candle to remind yourselves that you are in the presence of God together. This week, begin with a word of grace and blessing. Gather in a circle and take turns speaking these words to the person on your right: “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.
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 John 1:1-9, 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 approximately twenty 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.)
Read your resignation letters, if comfortable. After each group member reads, pause and offer silent prayer, asking God to receive the releasing of control.
In closing prayer, let each person offer a one sentence declaration of longing or need to God. Pause in silence after each declaration is offered, asking God to draw near and reveal his presence.
WEEK 4
Part Two: Waiting in the Dark
This week you’ll read chapters seven and eight in part two. Each day, select a reflection question to ponder. In addition to any other spiritual disciplines you have been regularly practicing, you’re invited to pray the examen daily this week (see below).
Prayerful preparation: Light a candle to remind yourself that you are in the presence of the One who knows you, loves you, calls you by name. Quiet yourself using your breath prayer.
Reflection
Life continues to unravel for some of the characters. With whom do you identify? Why? Do you find yourself hoping for a particular outcome in each of their situations? What do your longings for the characters reveal about your longings for yourself or those you love in the midst of trials? Offer your observations to God in prayer.
Reflect on a time of suffering in your own life. What role did community play in the midst of the trial, either in sharing your burden or compounding your pain? As you remember the experience, what can you give God thanks for? What still needs to be grieved or forgiven? Write about the sorrow or wound, and offer it to God.
Think about a time when you witnessed Christlike community. What did it look like? Or, if you haven’t seen the body of Christ functioning like Christ, what do you imagine it would look like? Where might God call you to offer the ministry of his presence to others? What gifts of listening, compassion, or service has God given you to share?
Hannah identifies a difference between putting confidence in her ability to hear God versus putting confidence in God’s ability to speak in a way she can understand. Does this feel like a paradigm shift for you? If so, spend some time processing it.
Identify times in your life when you were driven by fear, guilt, or duty. What was the result? Identify times in your life when you were guided by love. What was the fruit?
Charissa is overwhelmed by her failures, discouraged by her sin. If you were alongside Charissa, what word of hope would you offer? What word of hope do you need to hear right now?
Examen
This week, try practicing the examen daily as a way of discerning God’s presence in the midst of ordinary life, or as a way of glimpsing the ways Christ is being born in the midst of mess. Journal your insights each day.
Week Four: Group Discussion Questions
If possible, light a candle to remind yourselves that you are in the presence of God together. Invite someone to read Romans 5:1-5 as you begin.
Discuss any points of resonance with the characters’ unfolding journeys. With whom are you sympathetic or frustrated? Why? In what ways are the characters providing windows to glimpse God and others more clearly, or mirrors to see yourself?
What comes to mind when you think about the “ministry of presence”? In what ways is your group practicing this? How can you be more intentional about authentic, compassionate community?
What did you notice as you practiced the examen this week? Did any recurring themes emerge? What do you sense are God’s invitations to you?
Closing exercise: Offer a word of hope or encouragement to the person seated on your left. (Take time in silence to prayerfully listen before beginning the exercise.) What evidence of the Spirit’s work do you glimpse in
this fellow traveler? Take time to listen and savor the word that is offered to you before turning to offer a gift to someone else.
WEEK 5
Part Three: In a Place Like This
This week you’ll read chapter nine in part three. Each day, select a reflection question to ponder or spiritual discipline(s) to practice.
Prayerful preparation: Light a candle for hope. Using your breath prayer, quiet yourself in the presence of the Holy One.
Reflection
Return to the theme of pondering what it means to be loved, chosen, favored. Which practices help you to meditate on the truth of God’s love? Which Scripture verses remind you of the love of God? Practice declaring God’s love for you every time you see your reflection.
Hannah ponders what it means to wait for the kingdom of God to be revealed, to groan and struggle and weep even while taking comfort in the work God has already accomplished through Jesus Christ. What does it mean to sing hope and good news in a minor key? How are you longing for the kingdom to be revealed? Pray for the coming of the kingdom into the lives of those who weep. Pray for the coming of the kingdom into the world.
Several of the characters are being taken where they don’t want to go. In what ways do you identify with their wrestling, resistance, or resentment? Are you able to name a time in your life when you offered a costly “Here I am, Lord” prayer of surrender? What happened?
What types of situations or people push your buttons and agitate you? What might God be revealing in the agitation?
Hannah contemplates her struggles with scarcity and abundance, contrasting the image of a pie being cut into slices and the image of a beach on a sunny day. In what ways do you live with a scarcity model regarding God’s love, delight, and blessings? In what ways have you been converted to abundance?
Typically, narrative texts in Scripture lend themselves more easily to praying with imagination. But Meg recognizes that Isaiah 11:1-9 is filled with images about what the kingdom of God will look like one day, so she pictures herself within the landscape described. Which images from Isaiah 11 capture your attention and imagination? What is your prayer as you wait for the kingdom of God to be fully revealed?
Examen
Continue practicing the prayer of examen at the end of each day. What are you noticing about living attentively in God’s presence? What are you seeing about the ways you move toward God and away from God?
Contemplative Prayer
Sometimes called “centering prayer,” this is a prayer of silence, a “resting in God’s love and presence” prayer (Psalm 131), a loving gaze focused on the Beloved. Because our minds are chaotic and noisy, even when we’re not speaking, it takes time to settle in to silence. Sometimes it’s helpful to use a word to return to focused, silent attention on God. This word could be a name for God revealed in Scripture or, like Nathan’s “hineni,” a brief declaration of intent or longing. Whenever your mind wanders and distractions overwhelm, return to quiet by offering this prayer word to God. The goal of the prayer is not silence or peace. The goal of the prayer is intimate communion with the One who loves us, a centering of ourselves in Christ. Just as shared silence can be an expression of intimacy and trust with a friend, contemplative prayer is a declaration of trust: we do not need to use words to express our devotion to God. If you are new to contemplative prayer, try practicing it for five minutes at a time. What do you notice?
Scripture Meditation
Read John 1:9-14 several times aloud, using a translation that is unfamiliar to you. (You may wish to read from The Message, as Mara did.) What words or phrases capture your attention and invite you to linger in prayer?
Intercessory Prayer
In addition to praying for those you love, pray for those you do not love. Ask God to help you pray for his kingdom to come into the hearts of those who turn aside from him and for the ones who wound and sin against you.
Praying with Imagination
If you are too influenced by Meg’s experience of praying with Isaiah 11, choose a different text for engaging with imagination. (For example, in Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom.) Imagine you are in the scene or the story. What do you hear? See? Feel? Touch? What do you say? How do you respond to what happens in the scene? Offer your thoughts and feelings to God in prayer.
Celebration
Name some of the “flowers” God has given you, the evidence of his love. Spend time celebrating and giving God thanks for these gifts and blessings. Now think of someone you envy (or have envied in the past). Spend time identifying the gifts or blessings that have been poured out on this person. Practice celebrating God’s generosity, giving God thanks for the flowers that have been given to others. Ask for the grace to pray that God would lavish even more goodness on the one you envy.
Week Five: Group Discussion Questions
If possible, light a candle to remind yourselves that you are in the presence of God together. Group leaders, choose a carol text for opening prayer. After reciting it a couple of times, invite the group to sing it together.
Discuss your experience of practicing spiritual disciplines this week. Which ones were life-giving to you? Which ones were challenging? Why?
Recite together these words from John 1:14 (The Message): “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” Having taken a moment to ponder the revealed glory and generosity of God in Christ, offer to the group the name or first initial of someone for whom you find it difficult to pray. Without giving any specific details of that person’s story, share a few sentences about why you struggle to pray for him or her. Let others in the group offer their prayers, both for you and for the person you identify. Conclude this time of prayer by reciting John 1:14 together again.
Share your responses to question 3 under “Reflection.”
Closing exercise: Practice silence together by communing with God in contemplative prayer (five to ten minutes).
WEEK 6
Part Three: In a Place Like This
This week you’ll read chapter ten in part three. Each day, select a reflection question to ponder. As a spiritual practice this week, write your “two steps forward” story (see below).
Prayerful preparation: Light a candle to remind yourself that Emmanuel is with you. Practice five to ten minutes of contemplative prayer, a declaration of your desire to rest in the love of God.
Reflection
What are the physical markers or “flowers in winter” that remind you of the presence and faithfulness of God? What object do you need to keep visible as a reminder during this particular season of your life with God? (If you are participating in a group study, plan to take an object with you when you meet, and share the story of its significance.)
Is there any sin, weight, fear, or sorrow for you to unburden through prayer, journaling, or confession to a trustworthy companion? What truth needs to be voiced?
Katherine emails Meg some words of encouragement, commenting that it’s easy to punctuate our pain with exclamation points rather than commas when we’re in the midst of a trial. Read Luke 2:1-7. What details from the story give you hope and encouragement? Why? Think about a time in your life when it seemed you had ended up in the wrong place. Write an account of what happened, using mostly commas. How did God reveal himself through the twists and turns of the story?
Who needs to hear the message of “You’re not alone” right now? Find a way to encourage someone who is going through a difficult time, a way to offer “flowers in winter.”
Katherine suggests that Hannah focus not on a “behold me” prayer but on beholding Jesus. “Don’t start with your ‘Here I am’ to God,” Katherine says. “Start with God’s ‘Here I am’ to you.” Why is this shift important for Hannah? Do you share anything in common with her? How do you spend time beholding the character and love of God? What differenc
e does it make in your ability to trust him?
Meg experiences heartache as she tries to witness to Becca. What is your experience of witnessing to others? Any stories to celebrate? To grieve? Is there anyone you believe God is calling you to share your story with? How can you be in prayer for those who haven’t yet received Jesus?
Writing Your Story
After struggling with the spiritual formation part of her final paper, Charissa realizes that she can simply write the story of her journey: the steps forward and the steps back, the longing and the fear, the resistance and the yielding, the sin and the grace. Spend time writing about your own journey. How are you moving deeper into the knowledge of God, deeper into the knowledge of yourself? How is the light shining into the darkness? What encouragement have you received along the way? (If you’re walking with a group, be prepared to share these stories during your final session together.)
Week Six: Group Discussion Questions
Two Steps Forward Page 31