Liturgy 009: Toddler Pools, Indoor Waterparks, and the Boredom of Spiritual Stagnation

☕️ Take 5 Minutes to be present to God, Self, and Others

Hello and welcome new subscribers! Oikon & Wesley sends out a weekly liturgy every Monday to help ground you for the week ahead. I encourage you to set aside 5-10 minutes to prayerfully read through these words with attentiveness to the Spirit of God (best done with coffee in hand).

🙏 Collect Prayer

Take in 3 deliberate breaths
and pray these words slowly.

God who makes all things new

On this first day of 2024
Help us to take inventory of our souls

What are you exporting out?
What are you importing in?

Help us also to look again towards you.

God of love.
God of joy.
God of compassion.
God of shalom.

May our first and foremost resolution be to deepen our loving union with you, until your life is made known to the world through ours.

In the Name of Christ, our LORD
Amen

📖 Lectio Divina

Read these ancient words slowly.
Be attentive to what the Spirit may be saying to you,
personally and directly, today.

Isaiah 43, excerpts

But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:

Do not fear,
for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; 
you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.

Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.

💡 Quote

The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it. But we will escape it only by adding something better to it.
—Wendell Berry

🧘 Reflection

Toddler Pools and Water Parks

I took my six year old daughter to a not-so-inexpensive indoor waterpark this past week. At first, I thought it was a poor financial decision.

She was afraid. The slides seemed too large. The wave pool too scary. Even the lazy river… too fast. She wanted only to play in the toddler pool. I smiled and played with her in the splash pad with other unadventurous children.

And then.

She grew bored.
She grew courageous.
I think it might’ve been the Pizza break.

She grabbed my hands and asked if I would go with her to the big slide.

By the end, we had explored the entire water park, and she didn’t want to leave. You couldn’t wipe the silly smile off her face.

Having discovered the joy of her own courage, she was alive and present to the moment at hand.

Toddler Pool of Immaturity

I wonder if such is the state of our souls.

Content to stay in the toddler pool of spiritual immaturity - refusing to practice forgiveness, refusing to integrate faith into our lives, refusing the Spirit’s invitation to surrender control… we never explore the gift of being fully alive in Christ.

I pray that we would feel the boredom of spiritual stagnation.

I pray for courage to enjoy and embrace the life God has designed for us.

As the prophet says God is doing something new!

The Spirit always leads us into what may feel like a wilderness or impassable waters — a life wholly given unto God.

🕊️ Blessing

May you behold what new things God is doing in and around you. May you enter the new year with a holy discontentment to remain where you are. And may you live this day with courage to walk in the way of Christ.

Amen