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In her sermon this past Sunday, Pastor Alison spoke about the difference between knowing God (experientially and relationally) and knowing about God (intellectually, in the abstract).
She said this: "As I’ve been reflecting, it has occurred to me that having just one word for 'know' in the American context both reflects and shapes how we understand faith, spiritual practice, and the Christian tradition. With just one word available to us, we sometimes flatten the concept of knowing, falling into the trap of emphasizing just one type, or certain types, of knowing over others. One way I see this play out is the tendency to equate knowing things about God with knowing God experientially. Both ways of knowing are important — and they help to reinforce each other — but we benefit from being clear about the difference between the two. Now, let me be clear, learning about God — say through studying the Bible, or discussing theology, or listening to sermons like this one, — is wonderful! But it’s often not the same thing as interacting with God relationally." Alison shared two frameworks that have helped her to know God more deeply: 1) Attention as Prayer 2) Recognizing the Voice of God
Attention as Prayer
God is everywhere. We can go nowhere apart from God. However, we can be more or less aware of God’s presence and more or less aligned with God’s love and priorities. Because of this reality, throughout history, artists and mystics have spoken about attention as a key component of spiritual practice. French mystic Simone Weil, who was born in 1909, spoke about attention like this: “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” “Prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable towards God. The quality of attention counts for much in the quality of the prayer. Warmth of heart cannot make up for it.” English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it this way: "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes-- The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries, And daub their natural faces unaware" If we want to see the ways that Earth is crammed with heaven, the ways every common bush is afire with God, then we need to practice turning our attention to God. Alison spoke about the ways that this has been true for her in her own life, as well as the ways that practicing attention can be difficult in our world. She said: "Over the years I have found that I am most able to feel God’s presence when I give something my whole attention. When I connect to my body and my breath through deep breathing. When I set aside time to pray, meditate, or journal. When I walk through the tree-lined streets in my neighborhood. When I am fully present in conversation with another. When I am immersed in a work of visual art, dance, theatre, or music. When I minimize distractions and give these things my full attention I am much more able to sense God’s presence with me and to be responsive to the ways that God’s Spirit is moving and working within me and around me. But this is not easy to do. Our world and our technology reward short attention spans and multitasking. Cultivating the kind of deep, sustained attention needed to abide in God — requires that we be intentional about how we direct our time, energy, and focus. In the words of the song we sang together earlier — we need to become skilled at 'being where our feet are.' And like any other skill we can only become good at this through regular practice. For me, it has been helpful to plan ahead — picking a specific time or place when I want to practice directing my attention to God." If you are interested in practicing attention as prayer, we recommend taking a look at the four Daily Practices included in this year's 40 Days of Faith Guide. They are: 1) Looking Up and Down: This practice from Emily P. Freeman helps us to literally pay attention to where our feet are by taking two photos a day as a form of creative prayer. 2) Taking In the Good: This practice helps us to overcome our hardwired negativity bias by turning our attention to and internalizing positive experiences. 3) RAIN Feelings Check-In: This practice is a mindfulness-based technique that can help us to develop emotional awareness, grow in self-compassion, and build our capacity to process emotions (instead of avoiding, suppressing, becoming overwhelmed by, or responding reactively to them). 4) Embodied Prayers: This practice, from Dr. Hillary L. McBride, allows us to pray with our bodies, symbolically creating the kind of world that we want to inhabit and letting ourselves be changed into more whole versions of ourselves. We think these practices are great! But engaging attention as prayer can be even simpler if you’d like. It might look like quieting your mind, connecting to your breath, and praying, “Come, Holy Spirit.” Or, like being intentional about putting phones away at the dinner table. Or, like listening to music without doing anything else. Try some things out and see what works for you!
Recognizing the Voice of God
The second framework Alison spoke about was learning how to recognize the voice of God. Alison shared a personal story about how her life has been changed by learning to recognize God's voice. She also said this: "I’ve found that a key aspect of cultivating friendship with God has been both sharing my thoughts and feelings with God and, also, growing in my ability to perceive the ways that God is guiding me and speaking to me. Before I say more, I want to acknowledge that the practice of hearing God’s voice can be fraught for many — especially if you have had negative experiences in pentecostal or charismatic spaces. Please know that like with anything else at the River our approach to hearing God’s voice does not involve pressure or manipulation of any kind. And that we don’t think there is one 'right' way to hear from God that is more valuable than others. There are countless ways to hear from God — through journaling, prayer, reflection, meditation, and conversation; through words, images, stories, memories, songs, and scripture passages; by noticing our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and bodily sensations; by seeking God on our own and, also, in collaboration with others. And that’s by no means an exhaustive list! The method we use matters less than our end goal itself — the goal of knowing God more deeply." A key question that arises for many is: "How do we know something is the voice of God?" Alison shared a helpful essay from Richard Rohr on this topic. You can read it in full here. Some of Rohr's key points were that the voice of God:
If you are looking for support around learning how to recognize the voice of God, please do not hesitate to reach out to Alison to schedule pastoral counseling meeting. She would love to work with you! Additionally, some resources and practices you may want to explore on your own include: We hope these resources are helpful to you and we pray that in the year ahead, each of us, in our own unique ways, would grow in our ability to know and connect with God.
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This week in our Connection: The Heart and Art of Faith series, Maddie talked about curiosity—what it looks like to really notice another person, to ask one more question, and to move from surface-level interaction into deeper connection.
As we saw in the Song of Songs, love often begins with attention. The lovers in the poem slow down, delight in each other, and linger long enough to truly see one another. And that same posture—of curiosity, presence, and openness—is something we can begin to practice in our everyday relationships. So this week, instead of just one resource, we wanted to offer a few that can help you put curiosity into practice. 1. Watch: 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation – Celeste Headlee This week’s sermon referenced a TED Talk by journalist Celeste Headlee, and it’s well worth watching in full. In this talk, Headlee offers simple but surprisingly challenging practices for better conversations:
What’s powerful about this talk is how practical it is. These aren’t abstract ideas—they’re small shifts you can try immediately in your next conversation. Try this: Before your next conversation, pick just one of her suggestions and focus on practicing it. 2. Read: Curious Minds: The Power of Connection – Dani Bassett & Perry Zurn In the sermon, Maddie also talked about how curiosity isn’t just a personality trait—it’s something built into us. It’s part of how we move toward one another. Bassett and Zurn describe curiosity not just as information-seeking, but as a force of connection—something that draws us out of ourselves and toward other people. They also name different “styles” of curiosity:
Reading even a short summary of their work can help you notice: What kind of curiosity comes most naturally to me? And how might I grow in other ways of being curious? 3. Practice: Three Questions to Go Deeper Sometimes the hardest part of curiosity is simply knowing what to ask. Here are three questions you can try this week—whether with a friend, coworker, or someone at church:
These kinds of questions open the door to stories, not just updates. Try this: Choose one person this week and ask one of these questions. Notice what happens. 4. Learn: More about Song of Songs! If you're interested in going deeper into the biblical text we covered this week, this article offers a more in depth examination of Song of Songs and the ways in which it's been read as a love poem throughout history. The poem invites us to reclaim attentive love as something to be proud of rather than something to be ashamed of. In her sermon this past Sunday, Pastor Alison mentioned a few resources that we want to share with you! The first was a video from The Bible Project that takes an in-depth look at the first creation narrative in Genesis 1. You can find it here! The second resource Alison mentioned was the book Original Blessing: Putting Sin in Its Rightful Place by Danielle Shroyer. We have a copy in the River's Lending Library that you are welcome to check out! About Original Blessing Of the worlds major religions, only Christianity holds to a doctrine of original sin. Ideas are powerful, and they shape who we are and who we become. The fact that many Christians believe there is something in human nature that is, and will always be, contrary to God, is not just a problem but a tragedy. So why do the doctrines assumptions of human nature so infiltrate our pulpits, sermons, and theological bookshelves? How is it so misconstrued in times of grief, pastoral care, and personal shame? How did we fall so far from Gods original blessing in the garden to this pervasive belief in humanitys innate inability to do good? In this book, Danielle Shroyer takes readers through an overview of the historical development of the doctrine, pointing out important missteps and overcalculations, and providing alternative ways to approach often-used Scriptures. Throughout, she brings the primary claims of original sin to their untenable (and unbiblical) conclusions. In Original Blessing, she shows not only how we got this doctrine wrong, but how we can put sin back in its rightful place: in a broader context of redemption and the blessing of humanitys creation in the image of God. About Danielle Shroyer Danielle Shroyer spent over a decade in pastoral leadership and was a founding member of the emerging church movement. She speaks often across the country on issues of theology, faith, culture, and story, and blogs at www.danielleshroyer.com. A graduate of Baylor University and an Princeton Theological Seminary, Danielle is the author of Original Blessing: Putting Sin in its Rightful Place, Where Jesus Prayed: Illuminations on the Lords Prayer in the Holy Land and The Boundary Breaking God: An Unfolding Story of Hope and Promise. 
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