The Annual Examen: A Practice for Reflecting on 2020
Perhaps more than previous years, we need to look back and reflect on 2020. This year has changed us so profoundly, and it's worth looking back to see just how we've changed.
My personal temptation is to just say "Whew, good thing 2020 is over," and move on. Reflecting back on everything that happened this year doesn't necessarily sound like a joyous prospect right now, and it's all too easy to shove 2020 aside and try to move forward. Surely 2021 couldn't be worse, right? But reflecting back on times of pain, sorrow, and suffering can be healing and transforming. It also allows us to see how God was present and at work.
Spiritual Friendship
If ever there has been a time to be grateful for friendships, it’s been in the last five months.
I’ve appreciated all the humorous memes and posts about how 2020 has been one giant dumpster fire of a year, but in all seriousness, these few months have placed our souls, emotions, and closest relationships into a giant pressure cooker.
Still, with so much pressing in and trying to divide us and tear us apart from one another, I’ve found so much gratitude for the deep friendships in my life. Even as we’ve been separated and isolated during lockdowns and quarantines, we've found creative ways to spend time together and maintain connection, and that’s been so beautiful to me. These friends have been messengers of hope, celebrators in our joy as we expect our first child, fellow mourners and lamenters as we all adjust and struggle through so much change and loss. Oh, how we’ve needed them!
So today, I want to invite you to consider how spiritual friendships breathe life into our journeys with Jesus, and how to develop these friendships in your own life.
Favorite Spiritual Formation Apps
If you're anything like me, using your phone, tablet, or computer while attempting any kind of spiritual practice can be more of a distraction than anything else. Before I know it, I’m scrolling Instagram or checking my email instead. Sometimes, I find it easier to keep my phone, iPad, and computer in a completely different room when I’m in prayer.
Still, the world we live in today affords us so many opportunities to discover new ways of engaging our spiritual lives and connecting with Jesus, so I wanted to share a few favorite spiritual formation apps with you!
The Prayer of Examen
Over the last several years, the Examen has been a prayer practice that I keep coming back to again and again. When I’m tired of the typical “quiet time” routine, or when I simply need something to draw me into a prayerful space, I pray the Examen. It’s probably become my very favorite spiritual practice, and I feel as though the Lord has used it to draw me into deeper, simpler intimacy with Him.