Welcome to our website! With kudos to our daughter for the terrific design and her patient guidance, it is a joy to be on this adventure. We hope all who visit our page will be blessed and will return often.

I am aware that some people long for a way to bring their spiritual path and the rest of their lives together. Their work in a career seems to have an unscalable wall around it. The hustle and bustle of busy family and social life seems to be an unbreachable separate entity as well. Strangely enough, even church life can seem to be on a different path than their personal devotional life.

Having worked both in business and church ministry, while raising a family, I understand. In fact, in one period of time, I did all that while returning to school for a long-delayed degree. Believe me, I know how disjointed our lives can get. And, I know that the incongruence hurts. It also short-changes our lives. It limits our effectiveness and fruitfulness, not to mention our joy and peace.

I wish I had known earlier in my life about the value of spiritually formative disciplines. Oh, I knew and faithfully practiced the basics that I had been taught in my Protestant tradition: Bible study, prayer, worship attendance, tithing, serving. I did that in aces! After all, I am a recovering perfectionist. But, in retrospect, I became dismayed at how far my inner life and my outer life were from each other. Thanks be to God, there is a solution. It is called transformation.

That is a big word. It portrays a condition that we know we need and that the scriptures promise; but we may have grown to assume it is something that we have to wait to experience—at the end of our lives, in Glory. We know to some extent there is an ongoing work of God’s Grace in our lives toward that goal, but we get used to what has been called the “slow work of God.”[1] We come to believe that there is nothing more we can do, since it is a work of God’s Grace to complete the process of salvation begun when we placed our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

After all, we have memorized that key verse: “By Grace you have been saved by faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”[2] Yes, it is a gift, not something we can earn; but we do have a role to play in entering the environment and accessing the resources of the Holy Spirit.

Good news! God has a plan! He invites us to the path of enhanced growth! There is a way to quicken the pace, hasten to the goal, and live more integrated spiritual lives—more integrated with work, family, social activities, community responsibilities, recreation, church life, relationship to the natural world, and even our fitness and nutrition.

The path begins where God pointed ages ago—in Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” Seems simple. Too simple. So, we overlook the power of that simple step. From our Protestant work ethic view, our western individualistic stance, it seems preposterous—frankly speaking. But the trip of a thousand miles in our spiritual journey begins right there. Until we master that simple step, we will indeed experience only the “slow work of God.”

So, I invite you to work on step number one: Be still. Before your regular morning schedule begins each day, set apart five minutes alone and quiet when you will do nothing, think nothing, speak nothing, seek nothing. You will simply sit still and know in your innermost being that God is present with you. Let your family know that you will do this and find a place of solitude—and close the door. Take a deep breath and welcome the Spirit. Softly and gently speak your favorite name for God, as tenderly as if you were blowing a feather in His direction. Be still. Wait. Trust. Believe. Watch. Notice. Listen inward. Daily.

Explore other ways to deepen your experience of God as you visit our website. Here you will find guidance for your ongoing spiritual development. There are articles, meditations, poems, prayers, and videos. Check back from time to time as new resources are added regularly.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, strengthen and encourage you, comfort and give you peace.

Julia Ledford