Remember: Spiritual Autobiography
For our sixth summer theme at Nexus, we are taking a week to remember as we look forward to the fall and a new season together. In lieu of a blog post this week, Karla passed on an incredibly helpful exercise that I thought I would post here. To help us remember and learn from our own history, why not spend a little time thinking about or writing our own spiritual autobiography? I think this is a great reflective exercise, so check it out. Karla Drader adapted this from Brian K. Rice’s “The Exercises - Volume One”. Thanks Karla!
Your Story As Spiritual Autobiography
As we look back in order to look forward, you may want to reflect on your story - as involved and detailed as you like. Considering the highlights of the past can give you good clues about yourself - what’s important to you, areas needing healing, parts of you you’d like to reconnect with… so many avenues to explore. The record of your life has many details! This can be an exciting exercise in self-discovery and awareness. If you choose to focus on the spiritual highlights, you might consider how you have experienced God's presence and work in your life… how you have been shaped by your faith communities, friends, direct experiences/senses of God’s presence…how you might notice your story joining the big story of God in the world. Here are three approaches to consider:
The Thematic Approach:
Use these questions (perhaps one a week) to reflect and build on core themes. Use them as prompts or stepping stones into the writing process. Use any questions/themes that interest you, ignoring those that are not helpful. Come up with your own questions or perspectives to guide your writing.
Write about the significance of your spiritual heritage and church experience. What were some people and experiences that seemed to draw you closer to God, and what seemed to draw you farther away? Has your perspective changed at all over the years, and if so, in what ways?
What are the earliest memories of your encounters with God?
Consider the defining moments that have shaped your life. Defining moments are those that have shaped who you are today - they may be decisions you made, events you participated in, experiences you had, etc. (Note: Reflect on influential people in the next section.)
Now write about several people who have had a significant influence on your life. What was the nature of their influence on you?
Write about any spiritual practices you’ve tried throughout your life. How has that shifted? What was their impact? Are there any you long to return to? What has been meaningful for you? What were the things that most connected you to God? To others? To yourself? To the land?
Now consider more recently… What is feeding your soul? How do you notice the effect? How are you experiencing God?
What have been the most painful experiences that have shaped you? How have you encountered God in these hard times?
What are other themes or ideas that are of great interest to you and which have shaped you?
The Historical/Timeline Approach:
Build a storyboard of your life with attention to the defining moments, vital lessons, key influencers and pain points that have shaped your story. Divide your life into chronological periods or chapters, either by decades or by life transitions (graduations, significant relationships, major geographical moves, career changes, major loss and crises…choose no more than 6 or 7).
Once you have divided your life into segments, brainstorm to build a list of anything you believe is spiritually significant in each of these periods. Consider people, places, events, experiences, decisions, beliefs, challenges, problems, opportunities, etc.…let your mind wander back, gathering many things which you can edit afterwards.
At this point, you have a broad chronological outline of your life, placing the spiritually significant events in their chapters/seasons. Now you are ready to begin writing. Choose several items and write about them, using the style of writing that works for you - bullet points and brief notations, or more detail and story-telling. Consider how God has been at work and what God might be saying right now.
The Narrative Approach
For this approach, think about your story in light of the features of good stories. For each feature, do a little brainstorming, gathering many ideas and possibilities. Then write about the ideas that stand out to you.
Charlie Chaplin once said, "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot". Consider the genres of your life…Drama, thriller, comedy, fantasy, romance, science fiction, adventure, sports, action, western, horror, musical, and mystery…Would you consider your life story to be one of these genres, or do you find significant experiences that would fit under several of these? Could you rewrite your story in a different genre?
Characters: Who are the primary characters in your story, and what is their influence on you?
Antagonists: Who are they? How have they hurt you? How have you responded?
Quest: What are you searching for? What has been lost or stolen? Where are you in the search and recovery process?
Struggles, challenges, opposition: What have you encountered? How did it unfold? How did it resolve, or has it? What were the results?
Themes: What are the great themes that are vital to your story? How have you experienced those great themes?
Loose Threads: What seems really unfinished about your story? What is unresolved? What are the points of tension that are prominent in your story?
As you write, it may be easiest to choose one approach to use, but you can borrow ideas from all three. Whichever you choose, you’ll need to do the work of identification, gathering, and brainstorming to gather the raw material (ideas, themes, experiences) that are of interest. Then there is the work of reflection and writing on the things you think are most important. This can take quite a bit of time if you want it to, so consider setting goals, and breaking up the task over days and weeks.
When you finish, read it over. Reflect on how you feel as you read through it. What are the dominant reactions you have as you consider the story of your life and the story of God in your life? What do you notice now - about God at work in your life journey? Is there anything you believe God is saying to you right now in light of your journey as you have remembered it? What clues have you uncovered in your past that give insights into who you are today? Is there anything you sense God asking you to revisit in your past?