What a gift it was to have Casey Tygrett with us Sunday night. Casey guided us through the important role our memories play in the formation of wisdom. “To be ready for what is to come,” he said, “we are invited by God’s Spirit to learn from where we have already been.” We learn from our wounds, our successes, and our failures in order to receive wisdom from God. Wisdom, as the great Dallas Willard once said, is the knowledge of how to live well.
After teaching, Casey led us in an Examen based on our memories. If you couldn’t be with us, please make some time this week to listen and engage our practice.
Kingdom Practices
This week, let’s continue in our Examen of memories. Perhaps there was an invitation from God in your practice of the Examen. Did you sense a way you might carry your experience in this memory forward? Or maybe you will remember this practice, and spend some time with it as God brings memories to the surface in the coming weeks. Below are the steps of this helpful practice (summarized from As I Recall).
- Acknowledge and rest in God’s loving presence.
- Identify a memory you sense God inviting you to examine. Name what you are grateful for in the memory. If it is a painful memory, you may choose to express gratitude for how God has worked out of the memory.
- Notice the emotions that arise as you hold the memory in your mind. Express those emotions to God.
- Ask God how you might turn this memory and the experience of it into wisdom for the future.
- Listen for an invitation. Is God inviting you to pass on this wisdom in any way?