What are you talking about?

I have a friend. She’s such wonderful fun, adventurous, loyal and hard working. But conversations can be exhausting. Sometimes I have to just stop her and say, “WHAT are you talking about?” When we quit laughing, she will catch me up.

I get lost because I don’t comprehend a connection. Sometimes it’s my fault; I let my attention wander and miss it. Other times she doesn’t give me enough information to follow her off the conversational exit ramp. One example was the day a conversation about back roads to the beach shifted to lasagna. I didn’t know she had the discovered the “best lasagna of my life” in a chance encounter after taking a wrong turn and getting lost. It’s an important piece of information! Once she shared that, I could say, “Oh, now I get it!” 

That’s what this post is about. What are the topics I blog about, and how am I organizing them? 

This blog is about spiritual journeys, and how our spiritual journey transforms the rest of our life. In my mind, there are four categories for what you find here. 

Biblical Cognition

According to Psychology Today, cognition is, in short, thinking, but not like an input computing machine. Cognition includes things like attention, creation and storage of memories, knowledge acquisition and retention, and logical reasoning. Knowledge of biblical content does not mean that we have acquired its meaning or integrated its principles into our lives. 

Others might call this Bible Study. Study sounds hard. While it does require effort, it is a fun and joyful process. Study also implies we’re being judged and graded. This is about relationship–relationship with God and our intersecting relationship with others, and even our relationship with other parts of creation. This journey is more about relationship investment than course completion. 

Spiritual Knowledge 

Inspiration comes from many sources: poetry, nature, the lives and writings of others. This is the category for the myriad of sources of information that stimulates our thinking and enriches our lives. 

Exploring Spiritual Practices

Throughout the ages, people have discovered there are practices and habits that help us work our spiritual muscles and mature in our spiritual lives. American culture’s focus on information-gathering and instant gratification leads us to discount the DOING side of things, especially things which take years of experience to master. Here’s the place where we will explore them. 

Living Spiritually

Learning isn’t just for information acquisition. We acquire knowledge so that we can live better lives. It’s all about how we APPLY what we know, and retain what we experience. Here’s where we pull it all together. (And where anything that doesn’t fit in another category will land.)

So that’s what am I talking about. 

Are there specific topics you would like to discuss? Leave a comment and tell me what they are.