Too many adults have ceased to be meaningfully curious about the spiritual life. Without curiosity we read our Bibles and say our prayers without experiencing any real transformation. This lack of curiosity leads to spiritual malaise in the form of distraction, apathy, or boredom.

Re-learning how to be curious can change everything.

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The first impression I had on seeing Martin was, “that guy knows God.”

Today marks the end of the three-day celebration where Christians remember the faithful departed; All Hallows Eve (Halloween), All Saint’s Day, and All Souls’ Day. These days invite us to remember those exceptional people whose lives and example point beyond themselves, inspiring us to hope. These days invite us to reflect on the ordinary saints whose presence communicated God’s love to us in simple ways. These days encourage us as we remember the conflicts, challenges, and changes that confronted our forebears, learning from their examples. These days remind us that we are not alone but connected to a story that began in a past eternity and will cumulate in a future eternity. These days allow us to steep ourselves in gratitude for the women and men who have loved us into being and commit ourselves to loving others as well.

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Probably every pastor and Christian leader in the USA is urging the faithful to pray for the upcoming election. In general, this is good advice, but it’s also woefully insufficient. If prayer is talking to God, what are we to say? If prayer is making a request of God, are we to request a blue or red victory? Are we to pray to “keep America great,” whatever that means, or are we to pray for the equally ambiguous, “reclaiming of America’s soul?”

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“If only God would speak to me.” This is a common lament. Sincere believers want God to confirm their choice of career, marriage prospects, or graduate school applications. Some seek a word of affirmation while they sort through periods of doubt or disillusionment. Skeptics smirk at the seeming lack of scientific evidence for a God who speaks. Whatever one’s faith commitments, the curiosity to hear God’s voice is strangely and urgently persistent.

Here’s how scripture can help.

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By Malaya Gaboury

Many of us can relate to the ‘emotional wall’ Malaya experienced this past week. Whether it’s anxiety or stress, sadness or rage, there is an opportunity for us to meet God if we can learn to just sit still.

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Could it be that God’s delight isn’t in our accomplishments, performances, or talents? Could it be that God is more delighted to sit quietly and contently with us than to watch us perform our ministry activities, spiritual disciplines, and moral actions? Could it be that the way to intimacy with God is a willingness to sit still and allow God to love us?

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In the book, Wait With Me; Meeting God in Loneliness, I describe a spiritual crisis. I was surrounded by people, relationships, and responsibilities while aching with loneliness. Like a starving baker, I was surrounded by sustenance while wasting away inside.

Many people are in exactly the same place when it comes to their life with God. They dutifully they join bible studies, practice devotions, listen to biblical teaching, engage in bible reading or memorization plans, and wonder why they still feel unchanged. Many are like the starving baker, famished in the midst of plenty.

The solution to the crisis described above is a practice I call imaginative reading

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In moments of anguish it’s easy to forget that some of our most cherished and comforting traditions emerged in seasons just like these. We need comfort in the midst of our trauma. We need hope for restoration. We need relationship with God. Isaiah 40:1-11 offers us all three.

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(This Talk was given at Cornell University in 2018.)

How is Jesus Christ relevant to an Ivy League Education?

Aristotle said, “ALL men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things.”

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When I first made a serious decision to follow Jesus, I realized that there is so much more to the Bible than I ever thought. To be honest, I was kind of overwhelmed at the thought of tackling Scripture on my own. Where do I even start? How will this draw me closer to God? How do I make sense of passages that confuse me?

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I love and support the conversation about justice we’re having in our culture. As a Christian, I don’t see how one can worship a God who, “hears the cry of the poor, ” (Psalm 34) or speaks through the prophet saying “I the Lord love justice,” (Isaiah 61:8) and then turn a deaf ear to those crying out to be seen and heard. At the same time, it’s important to remember that justice is medicine, not food. As a medicine, justice helps the body remove evil, malice, oppression, unfairness, and cruelty, but on its own it cannot sustain the body to grow into what is good, true, and beautiful.

Medicine is necessary when we are sick. Food sustains is into health. We need both.

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Where is God in a confusing world out there and a restless world in here? In moments like this we know we need God. Our need for God in moments of fear and failure is not just a modern problem. As my friend Calvin Chan would say, it’s an ancient problem, because it’s a human problem, because it’s a spiritual problem.

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Over the last month we’ve seen a dramatic shift in our national conversation around racism and justice. Online, in print, and on the streets, coalitions of women and men across ethnic, demographic, religious, and even political lines are taking up the call to work for racial justice. This is good. Christians can and should engage in marches, share articles, sign petitions, and raise our individual and collective voices for a better world. We can and should engage in principled debate around key issues.

And yet… with so much of our default engagement leaning toward speaking, acting, demanding, challenging, or arguing, we miss a deeper and more foundational work.

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“I didn’t expect it to impact me that much,” Bryan said, “this isn’t the first time, or even the first time in a while, that I’ve seen a video where someone who looks like me is hurt or killed…” his voice trailing off.

“I don’t know what’s happening in him,” he said, “I just know he’s angry and in pain.” This friend’s fear about his relationship with his son filled the space between us with a heavy weight.

These conversations forced me to take a more honest look at myself. Perhaps it’s past time to name and address the fear and anxiety so prevalent in this moment.

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What power do we really believe is going to set people free? This is an urgent as well as an important question as we negotiate a global pandemic, economic crisis, racial reckoning, and other dramatic cultural shifts.

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For many people, particularly those of us who grew up in majority culture, the fear of being confronted as racist is paralyzing. We’re eager to distance ourselves from overt white supremacy, like the KKK, and even covert white supremacy like gentrification and redlining. We want to be seen as a ‘safe’ person, an ally, or even an anti-racist. These are (mostly) good goals. (I say mostly good, because the focus of these efforts can be self-protective rather than others-centered, turning our efforts in on ourselves when our energies are needed elsewhere.)

Here are some spiritual practices that can help us move from fear to faithfulness as majority culture (white) people.

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