What Are Your Foundational Experiences of God?
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 10:53AM | in Concept of God, Concept of Self, Discernment, Foundational Experiences, Spiritual Formation 
Three years ago, when I had just begun my training as a spiritual director, I attended an instructional retreat weekend that had the topic of discernment as its central focus.
On the very first evening of that retreat, we watched a short clip from Mary Ann Scofield, one of the founders of Spiritual Directors International, talking about our foundational experiences of God and how they can serve as touchstones in our ongoing lives of faith. And this past weekend, as I attended a similar retreat weekend on that same topic, we revisited this idea of foundational experiences of God and how they can serve us in our discernment processes.
Consider the baptism experience of Jesus in Matthew 3.
Jesus comes up from the water, and a dove descends from the clouds as a voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” This was a declarative moment in the life of Jesus — a moment that confirmed his identity not only as the Son of God, but also as one who is beloved.
We see Jesus move from the bapstimal encounter into the wilderness, where he is tested by the devil at that very point of his identity. Three times, the devil tempts Jesus by saying, “If you really are the Son of God, do this … or this … or this.” He is testing the very meaning of what it means for Jesus to really be the Son of God, and Jesus must go back to that foundational encounter and remember. Reconnecting with his true identity that he received directly from God in that baptismal encounter allows him to respond to each temptation.
What about you?
What foundational experiences of God have formed your life? What did those foundational experiences teach you about God and yourself? How might returning to those foundational moments serve you in your own process of discernment?
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Christianne.
I just began a really long comment here and deleted and lost it. URG! Anyway, here goes again. This post is interesting because just yesterday my counselor and I were discussing this very thing about my impressions of God. When I first came to Christ I battled back and forth between wondering if God love me or if He was a bossy wrathful being just waiting to zap me at any given moment. It has taken years to learn to trust Him.
However, I do have a "me and God" story if you will endure it. It is rather lengthy. Several years ago, when I was a young Christian, I worked for a grocery store as a cake decorator. I worked in a little section in the corner. And right outside the department was a mylar balloon cage just outside the deli hanging from the ceiling.
The cage was full of inflated balloons. One day one of those balloons had become sorta deflated and it was deflated just enough to drift freely around in the air outside of the department. I hovered around all afternoon to the point that I seem to be swatting it out of my way every time I walked outside the department to stock the shelves with cakes. I had seen it many times that day, swatted it out of my way and finally, irritated, I noticed what it said. It said "I love You." At that very moment God spoke to me and said, "I have been trying to tell you something."
So, I got merrily along my way telling my parents and friends and basically anyone who would listen my story because it so blew my mind. Well, most people looked at me like I was nuts........"yeah right, God chased you with a balloon. Are you sure you are feeling alright?"
THEN I go to work the very next morning and there was another balloon that had drifted from that balloon cage and hovering right above my work corner. It was completely full of air and I had no idea how that balloon could have even got out of that cage because normally only the deflated ones drift. And the balloon said :"PS I love You." This incident still blows me away. So, curios as to how this happened.........sometimes you want say.......really? Is this my imagination? So, I inquired about that balloon from a co-worker who came to work 2 hrs before my shift, as to where that balloon came from. I was thinking maybe she had been aiming to buy it or something, and had put it to the side.
She said, "Tammy, it the strangest thing. I have been watching that balloon all morning float around and just before you came in it hit one of the ceiling fans and it landed over there." I am still blown away by the awesomeness of that experience. Christianne, I have written a blog on your blog. I will say "sorry" and probably do it again because I love sharing these stories because they are such cherished memories for me.
Hey. I was looking over this post and see so many typos and misspelled words. I hope you make since out of few places there. I did not check it before posting it because I was in a hurry........overlook me.
Tammy, that is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing it. What a creative way for God to communicate to you. I love that he used the ordinary details of your normal life -- meeting you in your workplace, using a deflated balloon, just like the ones you were used to seeing get out, and then totally blowing your expectations out of the water by doing something so unusual with the balloon (letting one get out that normally wouldn't have gotten out). It reminds me of Jesus using something ordinary, like bread and fish, to totally astound the disciples and the crowd when he turned it into a miracle of feeding 5,000.