Each of us comes into the world at a particular time and into a particular family and landscape.
We all receive a spiritual formation. We are taught, we learn, we have governing ideas about life, truth and how the world works.
Our ideas about life, about our story, have at the core what we truly believe about God.
Is God good?
Can God be trusted?
Does life have eternal meaning and significance?
Stories are shaped by the absence and presence of love and care, of parents and siblings, of neighbors, friends, strangers, and of enemies.
When my parents weren’t able to care for me as a young child, Aunt Rubye and Uncle Ralph stepped in and stood in the place of my parents. Their love and care gave me the framework for my life.
As a little girl,
Aunt Rubye lovingly encouraged me
as Uncle Ralph preached, “You need to be quiet and listen because God is trying to talk to you.” My earliest memory of God is listening and hearing my Uncle Ralph preach. One fine morning I heard, “My sheep hear my voice and they know me and they follow me.” And I knew in my little girl heart God had spoken to me, Susan, and that I was a sheep hearing the voice of Jesus.
Listening to my life with God - and with you to your life with God – this is what I love and what is my particular thing to do with my life. Preferably over a cup of coffee
with real cream.
