Introverts In the Church 4.2

Recently, I was involved in a pastor’s meeting and I was asked the question: How do you know when God is talking to you? How do you know when He is asking you to do something or when He is calling you to move forward in ministry in a particular way? It’s always been a difficult question for me to answer… and that meeting was no different. I have never heard the Lord audibly speak to me… even when I was called into ministry back in Jr. High. He didn’t audibly tell me to resign from my first two churches. He didn’t audibly tell me that I was supposed to marry Melissa Jane Wright. I don’t remember how I answered that day at the pastor’s meeting… but I’ll attempt to answer now as I continue reading McHugh’s fourth chapter.

Of course, I hear from the Lord while reading the scriptures. That’s an easy answer. But what about those moments when I’m up against a decision that the scriptures do not directly address? Or what if it’s a decision between a good thing and a better thing? How do I make my decisions? I think the Lord grants me brief moments of clarity at various junctures… moments when ideas flood over me. It doesn’t happen every day or even every week… but it does happen… and usually at just the right time. It’s a weird process that is difficult to explain or pin down. I can be sitting on a decision for several weeks and have no leaning or inkling of how to move forward or what to decide to do… and then, all of a sudden, I have clarity and a path forward opens up.

I don’t know if that’s an introvert thing… or just how God chooses to work through me. But McHugh says something in this chapter that catches my attention: “It may be that introverts are more equipped to hear and see what God is doing inside of them, while extroverts are more sensitive to his revelation in the outer world. God’s speech to introverts may come in the form of inward thoughts or impulses, ideas that spring out at us, or words, images or feeling that surprise us or cut against the grain of our natural tendencies. As introverts, we need to take the activities of our inner worlds seriously in order to hear the overtures of God sounding in our lives.”

This sounds strangely familiar… I’ve often noticed that God speaks to me through ideas. Sometimes it’s just a random thought that develops into something more. Sometimes the idea comes… but remains incomplete until I hear another puzzle piece of an idea from someone else that fits directly in with what I’ve been thinking about. Like I said, it’s extremely difficult to pin down… but McHugh’s definition really helps explain the process.

So while I can’t always pin down how God communicates to me… or how to explain those moments when He communicates with me… I do know, without a doubt, that he does communicate with me. He has always been a faithful guide. And even though He doesn’t speak the same to me that he has to others… that’s ok. Because He is choosing to speak to me in ways that He knows will capture my attention. He knows that a powerful and organized idea will capture my attention way more than most other methods. At the end of the day… He knows me better than I know myself… and chooses to communicate with me based on that knowledge. And for that, I am so grateful…

Next time around, I’ll try tackling McHugh’s section dealing with life’s rhythms and how that can be important for an Introvert.

Introverts in the Church 4, Part 1

McHugh describes what an introverted spirituality looks like in chapter four. After beginning the chapter by describing how scattered our society has become… he issues the following observation: ‘In an increasingly fragmented, fast-paced, chatter-filled world, I consider the greatest gift introverts bring to the world and the church to be a longing for depth.’

McHugh then starts to describe a ‘Contemplative Spirituality.’ Which was a section in which I found myself nodding my head a lot because it resonated with me and tended to describe some of my own leanings in devotional material recently. “Sometimes referred to as mysticism, this spiritual mindset seeks to discover the presence of God in every aspect of human life.” He goes on to describe the multitude of ways that God tries to communicate to us… from the scriptures, to beauty, to modern stories, to experiences… and the goal of contemplative spirituality is to be an active and open listener. This resonates with me… because some of my most profound thoughts about God tend to happen outside of church… sometimes in the midst of a moving story… or enjoying the beauty of nature.

One description that has been helpful to me in locating my spirituality on a map of sorts is by looking at three statements found in church history. Augustine would say ‘I believe in order to understand.’ Aquinas would say ‘I understand in order to believe.’ Mystics say ‘I believe in the absurd.’ In other words, there is such a mystery, such an unknowable-ness to the truths of Christianity… that a mystic begins to embrace that mystery… instead of being overwhelmed or frustrated by it… they allow it to expand their wonder and awe. The older I get, the more I find myself in the third category. That’s not to say that I’m not trying to learn and think and grow in knowledge… but there are certain things I don’t think I’ll ever completely understand… and I’m growing more and more comfortable with that.

McHugh goes on to describe a contemplative spirituality. One aspect is what he called integration. Here’s his depiction of this: “Introverts in particular can feel that the world divides us from ourselves, that it takes from us. In contemplation we seek to draw together the divided fragments of our existence and present them to God who, in turn, finds us, restores us and draws the pieces together.” I am learning more and more about my need for this to happen in my life. Particularly in those seasons of life when a lot of different things are coming at me all at once. It’s easy to feel scattered. But I find that when I can quiet myself before the Lord on a regular basis… he binds me back together. He quiets and even focuses my mind. It’s something, I’ve noticed recently, that I have to have in order to be effective in my various tasks.

Another thing McHugh mentions and it’s the last thing I’ll write about in this post is the role of solitude in contemplative spirituality. He makes immediate reference to the fact that we find Jesus as an example of carving out times of solitude in our lives. McHugh makes reference to solitude in much the same way that Bobby Gross (Living the Story of God) makes reference to fasting… it is the art of creating space for God. We remove ourselves from distractions and noise and human relationships… FOR A TIME… in order that we might experience more of God’s presence… or that we might hear Him in a clearer way. It’s a moving AWAY from something… but at the same time, it’s a moving TOWARDS something.

I’ll stop there for now… he finishes off chapter four with more on how to create and use times of solitude… and then gets into a discussion about how to take advantage of the rhythms of our lives. I’ll get into those topics next time around.