Back in class
The 8th course of my Master’s Program started last week, Faith Development and Spirituality. One of the projects I worked on last week was an unfolding life tapestry. It asked that for each year of your life you write: geographical location, key relationships, uses and directions of self, marker events, events and conditions of society and the world, image of God, center of power, and authority figure at that time. I broke it down into chunks of time 0-5, 5-8, etc… After doing so one reflects on the stages of life and patterns of life and how faith has been tested and fulfilled. It took a few hours to write especially finding the current events of the time and how they shaped the culture of that time frame. It was an overview of my faith journey. I found it very enlightening. It revealed the reasons for some of my valleys of faith and my mountaintop experiences. It is a practice I think everyone should take. It is an unfolding tapestry because it is not over yet.
As a culture we tend to move so quickly that we have little time for self-reflection. More value should be placed on such reflection. Such reflection illuminates patterns, history, and experiences that form each of us in different ways. I have journaled daily for years, rarely do I read back over my days. This tapestry gave me an overview that pointed to many different reasons and foundations for my faith.
Today, consider why it is important to take the time for self-reflection in your own life. How can it better you as a person? What could you learn from understanding who you are better?
If we don’t understand where we have been, how will we understand where we are going?
