This week’s intro is from Renovaré’s Content Manager, Grace Pouch:

Alignment is one of the best words I know of to describe what happens as the Kingdom of God grows in us and renovates us inwardly and outwardly.

Sometimes this word is used in non-Christian contexts as a sort of mystical alignment with ourselves or ​“the universe.” But here I mean it in the sense of being in agreement with God, of walking squarely in the way of Jesus.

When we come into alignment with God, it resonates in the mind, body, and spirit.

In my mind, it feels like clarity or peace about something that was formerly hazy. In my heart, I sometimes feel an internal ​“yes!” of harmony with God’s desires. In my body, I notice alignment when I relax into the slow pace required to pay attention to what God is saying through people and sights and sounds all around me. And in my spirit, in some rare but glorious occasions, I’ve felt ​“interknit with kindred souls” who are, as Thomas Kelly describes, ​“down in the same center of life.”

Two weeks ago I experienced such an occasion. I was in Malibu, California at a Franciscan retreat center with a group of participants in Renovaré’s Fellowship of the Burning Heart. Though we were practically strangers, our shared desire to ​“grow as disciples of Jesus, listening to God, each other, and our own hearts” made us feel like we were old friends.

Towards the end of the retreat, Nathan Foster invited us into a time of blessing one another. We spent ten minutes or so silently looking around the circle from face to face, jotting down whatever the Spirit brought to mind. We were literally seated around each other, but there was also a spiritual aspect to our encircling that was palpable.

While we asked God to fill our minds with his vision for each person’s flourishing, we experienced that ​“togetherness of soul” Kelly writes about. The confluence of the spoken blessings was a precious reminder of God’s presence among us.

I wonder: when have you had an inner sense of alignment with God?

Perhaps in reading or listening to something that rouses your inner ​“yes.” Maybe through sacraments designed to help us ​“tune in” to spiritual realities. Or maybe in a moment that seems irredeemably mundane, like the one described by our guest essayist Katelyn Dixon. She writes, ​“Baptize my eyes is a prayer that God longs to answer, because it is the joy of God to help us look at God’s world with eyes of wonder, hope, and love.”

Thanks be to God.