This year, I’m using the Present Over Perfect Guided Journal. I read Shauna Neiquist’s Present Over Perfect book when it came out a few years ago and so much of it just connected with me. When I saw she had created a journal, I knew it was right for this season of my life. The journal has small excerpts from the book and prompts to help you think, reflect, and write. I’ll be sharing some of the prompts and my responses.
Read Being (un)Favored Part 1.
Prompt (pg. 89): Return to that Bible story and try the Ignatian prayer of imagination for yourself. …Does it reveal anything new?
No matter the story, I feel like the one not favored. Leah. Can. Esau. Martha. The one that seems to be working hard. The dependable one. The one making things happen.
And then there is the favored one. The one that gets the approval, the blessing, the extra attention. The beloved one.
I yearn for what they have but can’t seem to stop striving or doing long enought ot receive it. Long enough to feel it. Perhaps that is the real problem. It is not the one that is favored. It is my heart.
Why can’t I simply be and receive?
Because it means I must surrender to knowing that I can’t ever do enough. I’m not designed that way. I’m designed to be in union with God and others, not to do it all.
Perhaps today I will fully receive that lesson.
Rev. Kris Mares 