Watching for Movement

Walking with Sue yesterday morning at Long Lake Regional Park in New Brighton, Minnesota, I was aware, as I always try to be when I walk in nature, of not only the beauty of everything around me but of its movement. For where there is movement there is energy and life.

Even the minutest movements illustrate the animation of life. With my camera I stop to capture a purple wildflower, only to notice the ever-so-slight movement of a pale yellow insect I would have otherwise missed, slowly and methodically working its way around the flower, doing what it is made to do with flowers. Energy and life.

Walking along a path, a flurry of brown and black motion catches my eye and I shift my attention and focus. It’s the rump of a chipmunk, hard at work digging in the soft soil, oblivious to us until we are nearly on top of it. Energy and life.

And here’s the point of this for me today beyond the beauty of the moment: Just as we can observe nature as it moves and grows and reproduces, so too can we learn to look for and notice the movement of God in our lives. Michael J. Christensen, in Henri Nouwen’s “Spiritual Formation,” writes:

“These movements of the Spirit may vary with the individual and with one’s season of life and community of faith; yet no one’s spiritual life is static, absolute, or perfectly completed, as if we must graduate from one movement to another before continuing our journey. Rather, we remain in motion and in the process of discerning which way the wind of God’s activity is blowing in our life. The process involves becoming aware of and naming the subtle movements of Spirit. To live spiritually is to seek to breathe with the Spirit’s rhythm and move in a God-ward direction on the long walk of faith.”

So as we go about the hard work of trying to discern our response to God’s call and discover God’s authentic purpose for us, it is wise to ask ourselves:

• Where is it that we sense energy and movement?
• Where is our life animated and most alive?
• What do our daily moods and feelings have to say about how we should be spending our days and our years?
• Are we spending too much time on the wrong things?
• And my favorite: What if we succeed at the wrong thing?

This week, take the time to slow down, to pay attention, to notice the subtle movements of the Spirit at both the center and fringes of your life. Listen for the whispers of God, who rarely shouts, I have found. Pay attention to what you are doing when you feel most energized and alive. Then do that more.