Embarking on the Spiritual Journey
What does it mean to "take the journey ourselves"? Remember that we have free will: We can refuse to move, to explore, to take the trip. God's love always surrounds us and invites us, but God's full healing seems to wait for our longing and consent, for the inner YES that indicates that our center of consent is engaged. We are not helpless puppets but are created to be children, heirs, partners, co-creators with God.

Let me insert one caveat here... I'm not saying that once we pause to focus on exploring and nurturing our inner life, that we make a narcissistic career out of self-knowledge and succumb to intellectual navel-gazing. Ideally, we do not allow the "flow of living water" to stop with me, mine, my development. One of the hallmark's of the Christian tradition is the notion that we are transformed for the sake of the world---it's a sacred, cyclical process. Service to others is part of the journey, too.

-- From the essay " Getting From Sunday to Monday"
by Linda R. Douty

Read the essay in its entirety.