Did It Rain Before the Flood?

Two weeks ago I was giving my rendition of Genesis 1 and 2, asking the crowd to use their "spiritual imagination" in thinking of how Adam and Eve might spend their time in the garden where they were told to "work" and "take care of" the Garden, prior to the fall (Genesis 2:15).  I reminded them that there were no weeds yet and God was watering the garden on His own with rain.

The next day, Dr. Walker and I did our two mile walk for exercise, which we try to do as often as we can when on the road, and as we walked, we started our routine debriefing of how the workshop went.  We usually critique each other on style and content.  He said to me, "I noted you said that God watered the garden with rain, but you know there was no rain until Noah."

That stopped me in my tracks and I responded with an astounded "what on earth are you talking about."

The idea that there was no rain comes from Genesis 2: 5-6 which says, "When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up - for the Lord God had not cause it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground."

The idea was that a vapor canopy covered the earth, producing a massive greenhouse effect.  Additionally, since there was no mention of rain until Noah, the assumption was there must not have been rain.  To me, the fact that very shortly after this text there were many plants of the field and humans to work the ground, negates this idea.  This text seems to me to be simply a recapping of the creation and the fact that no rain had come by day three.

Apparently many people have held this belief, but this was the first I had heard about it.  [I find it amazing what I continue to learn about the Bible, even after reading and studying it for so many years!]  Many have now abandoned this idea as it has been difficult to show how this would have worked and is not actually backed up with scripture.

On the face of it, with my limited knowledge, it makes no sense that God would create the world to have such a vastly different climate and weather system up until the flood.  The entire system would have had to be different.  But He declared His creation to be very good, so why change it so drastically?  Was rain a result of sin?  Seems odd to me.

I'm not sure I like the idea of living in a greenhouse, which sounds very humid.  And normally, I don't like to get into these type of debates which involve a lot of speculation of the past, which doesn't necessarily change anything for us today.  But it's interesting to learn about some of the speculation that theologians and scientists have regarding the way God created the world.

I had a very busy week in Ghana, teaching Church-based Business as Mission to 98 theology students at the Assemblies of God Bible College in Kumbungu, Northern Ghana.  In addition to that, we had a number of meetings exploring partnerships with other Bible colleges and seminaries.  The meetings were exciting in that we met people in key positions who have such a heart for the Marketplace and are looking for discipleship tools for their members.  One of the Christian universities was so excited (they already teach Theology of Work) about Discipling Marketplace Leaders that they immediately offered me a job and a place to live on campus! 

I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do in West Africa in the next year!  Things are certainly starting to get busy!

I'm now home for a few weeks and then will head out to East Africa, where we will have DML work to do in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.  

The students at the Assemblies of God Bible College.  A great class!

When Four Hours Becomes Eight

On Thursday, we started the four hour journey from Jos to Abuja at 7 am.  The goal was for our colleague to be able to make the trip back in time for an important church meeting that evening.  This particular road has been known for armed robbers, so there are many police and para-military check points along the way.

Some of the police and soldiers are very courteous and friendly, wishing us safe travels.

Others....not so much.

Two boldly demanded that we give them money.  We offered a blessing instead.  One accepted the blessing...the other one kept demanding money.  We didn't give any and eventually we were released.

At one stop, however, we were waved over by the police to park.  I've learned that there are strict rules about how to behave when this happens, or the consequences can be severe.  Our colleague was asked to provide his license and papers which were thoroughly examined.  Then the car was examined.  We began to hear arguing and we knew this wasn't good.  The violation?  A brake light was out and the spare tire needed more air (according to the police officer).

Both of these are relatively easy fixes and minor violations.  A brake light can burn out at any time without the car giving any sort of warning or notice.

It was the consequence that caught us off guard.  A 5000 Naira fine (about $15 - not too bad), license seized (that can get tricky to get back and is only supposed to be seized if there is a traffic accident), and three weeks of driving school for our colleague.  That's right.  You read it right.  Three weeks of daily driving school...for a brake light out and lower tire pressure on a spare tire.

[Nigeria must have the best educated drivers and safest cars in the world with this level of commitment to safety and repeat education!]

As we knew time was of the essence for our colleague, we wanted him to take care of it in the most efficient way possible, as we continued the journey.  As police don't take cash (which is a good thing!), the first step was to find an internet café which actually knows how to deal with these violations and can print the paper needed to take to the bank.  After three internet cafes that didn't know how or didn't have the capacity, we finally got the paper we needed at the fourth internet café.  Now to the bank to make the payment.  After waiting, and waiting, and waiting, we learned the computer was down.  Power is on and off so much in Abuja.  Finally, that payment was made.

Then it was on to get the brake light fixed and air in the spare tire.  One place for fixing the light.  One place for putting air in the tire.

Then we were on our way.

It was up to our colleague to find his way back to that check stop and the police station associated with it to get his license back.  And he would also need to plead with the people there not to require the three weeks of driving school.

His heart was heavy with the prospect.  Our hearts were heavy with the reality before him.

I get to say, "This is what happens in Nigeria."  I get to leave.  My colleague has to struggle with the fact that this is his country.  These are his people.  It's embarrassing for him.  It's beyond annoying.  It's a waste of time.  It's over the top.  The drain is emotional, financial, and time-consuming.

The good news is that he was able to get his license back and they waived the education requirement.  He missed his meeting at the church but was thankful to have the whole thing behind him.

This time.  What of next time?  What is a citizen to do when faced with this again and again?

One thing that I learned on this trip is the "gentleman's agreement" that the country of Nigeria has between the north and the south.  The agreement is that every eight years, there is to be a trade-off on whether the president comes the north or south.  The north tends to be more Muslim; the south tends to be more Christian.  The current president is from the north.  What I learned is that when the president from the North comes in, his people are all put into all ministerial and cabinet positions.  All the favor swings toward the North and the Muslims.  When the president from the South comes in, similar things happen, although Christians argue that their people work to be more egalitarian for all people.

Whatever was done by the previous president is usually undone and everyone who is from the other camp simply holds their breath until the eight years have passed.  This can't be good for the country overall.

In the US, we can say the same thing happens, as it relates to one president undoing what another has done.  But there is freedom of choice at each election.  The other issue is that things go much further here, with lives lost, police looking the other way, etc, based on where you are from.

Lots of thinking and processing to do on my part as I watch, observe, and try to identify with my Nigerian brother and sister.

I have now left Nigeria and am in Tamale, Ghana.  Today I start teaching at the Assemblies of God Bible College, where I'm told I will have 90 pastors as students of Church-based business as mission.  I was supposed to teach one class but they decided to open it up for all the students at the college for this section!

God is good...all the time! All the time...God is good...and that is His nature!

No "Spoiler Alert" Needed

I'm told that there are people who like to read the last page of a book first, in order to know whether or not the book ends well.  I assume reason this is done is to ensure the book has a happy ending.  If the book has a sad ending, they will pass on the drama of reading the

whole thing.

That is definitely not me.  In fact, I frequently feel misunderstood by my family because I tend to want to watch movies that are based on real life - movies that describe the hardship and pain of life; and often these movies are frequently sad.  I started feeling badly about myself, because I would recommend a movie that I thought was beautiful and deep, troubling and thought-provoking, and people would react negatively to it, so I began to think that maybe there was something wrong with my choice of "entertainment."  How could my sad choices be entertaining?  Maybe I'm too dark.  "When I watch something, I just want to escape - I don't want to deal with reality," is the line I frequently hear.  I was sharing this with a friend, who is similar to me in personality, who said "our personality types don't like 'candy' for entertainment - we are truth seekers, seeking to understand people and human nature."  I happily accepted that assessment as part of how God has made me.

Which brings me to the story for this blog, which actually needs no spoiler alert.  EVERYONE knows the end of this story.  And that is part of the problem.  This particular story ends happily but because we know the ending, we miss out on the tension that is so crucial to the understanding of the story.

The story I am referring to is when Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. We know the background of the story - the drama that is found in Abraham being asked to sacrifice a child that he has waited for his entire life; a child that was to be the beginning of the nations that would be Abraham's heritage; a child promised in such a dramatic fashion. We also know the ending to the story, but let's suspend that for a moment in light of a revelation that was new to me (maybe not new to you) and which dramatically changed the dynamics of this story.

How old was Isaac when Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice him? 

Almost every drawing or piece of art that has been made of this scene depicts Isaac as a child.  But when you read Jewish scholars and Christian theologians or commentators, you will see that almost all say that he was likely between the ages of 20-35 years old.

Whoa.

That changes the story for me.  Imagine now Isaac asking, "Father, where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" as an adult.  Imagine him carrying the heavy wood and walking alongside his father,

conversing as they walked.  These were not child/daddy conversations, but adult to adult. 

But more than that, think of what these words mean: 
Genesis 22:9  "He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the alter..."

By this time, Abraham was likely to be around 125 years old, assuming that Isaac was 25 years old.  Could Abraham have bound Isaac without Isaac submitting to being bound?  Likely not. 

Can you imagine willingly allowing your father to bind you, lay you on an altar, and plan to set you on fire?  Can you imagine THAT conversation?  And yet, apparently Isaac was willing to be obedient, even unto death.

This story is as much about Abraham's faithfulness to God as it is about Isaac's submission to God. I had never caught that before.

We've all heard how this story harkens to the story of Jesus, carrying his cross, but it bears a much closer resemblance to the sacrifice of Jesus by God the Father when we understand Isaac's age.  This wasn't a child being duped by a father who didn't want to tell him what was going on until it was too late.  This was a young man willing to go toward his death.

Am I willing to be as obedient as Abraham? Am I willing to be as obedient as Isaac? Could I sacrifice this deep, to this level?

The happy ending, of course, is that God provided the lamb, both for Abraham, as well as for us.  The good news, in fact, is that Jesus died in our place.

The good news is that there is one more spoiler alert given to us by Jesus:

I, for one, am very grateful.

This week we are on the road in Nigeria, visiting various cities to meet with pastors and church leaders who have begun to implement Discipling Marketplace Leaders.  On Friday, I will leave Nigeria for Ghana where I will begin teaching at the Assemblies of God Bible College in Tamale, as well as engage with other trainings for businesses and enjoy meetings with the Hopeline Team.  I appreciate your prayers!

Update from Nigeria

Greetings from Abuja, Nigeria.  The Harmattan winds arrived in Abuja just before I did, bringing a constant look of fogginess, which is actually a very dry and dusty wind from the Sahara.  It's been 100F here during the days, which despite the dust in the air, is still preferable to me as compared to the freezing temperatures and snow in Michigan!

We just concluded a two-day workshop for pastors and church leaders, and we were excited to have two leaders from Cameroon join us as well.  Lord willing, we will start the work there in July as some of the tensions there seem to be calming down.  They were both very excited by the material and it especially struck a cord with Emeline, who is working on her PhD in Organizational Leadership and has felt called to this exact message for some time.  In fact she has written a book about this concept but felt she lacked the tools to make it practical.  We are looking forward to being with them to do a five day course with DAI Cameroon.

One of the hot topics during this particular two-day training seemed to be a resounding echo of conversations that we have had of late in the US as well, having to do with the growing sense of the irrelevancy of the Church especially by young adults.  While people love the idea of Discipling Marketplace Leaders, some are occasionally frustrated by the fact that we believe this work needs to be done through the church.  The church leaders in this workshop wondered about whether we would be willing to work with a new movement - a movement of people who are frustrated with the current institutional church and who are starting their own gatherings.  One pastor of such a church was in our midst.  He expressed that you can only try so long to change the mindset of the institutional church and its leaders before you finally give up and try to "be the change that you seek."  The frustration with the church is often the same - it is inward focused, focused on raising money, focused on programs, and existing as a sub-culture.

Dr. Walker described the challenge in a new way during this training.  He asked whether people would rather be Moses or Joshua?  Moses was involved in protecting and saving a people who were enslaved and beaten down.  Joshua was involved in taking a new generation, who had forty years to leave behind slavery, to be a people ready to conquer and take over a new land.  The miracles that God did through Moses in Egypt were many and revolved around God doing the miracles.  The miracles that God did for those entering the promised land were fewer and they revolved around the Israelites being involved with the miracles (i.e. walking around the wall).  Are our churches stuck in caring for people with a slavery mindset, who have been beaten down by the world?  We describe this as a "Come to Get" church.  Or are our churches preparing us to conquer lands and move into the Promised Land?  We describe this as a "Come to Go" church.

It was an interesting conversation.  We certainly agreed on a couple of things.  First, we need to continue to work with the existing church and sound a warning, as we are told to do in Ezekiel 33. But secondly, if God raises up a new movement, as has been done time and again throughout history, we need to be open to how the Holy Spirit moving.  It needs to be a both/and.

Please continue to pray for the Church in Nigeria.  I have been told that churches in the north are being denied the ability to renew their annual occupancy permits.  This seems to be an attempt to close down the church.  The Church definitely seems to be under persecution in some ways in some parts of Nigeria.  Thankfully, the church is more about buildings and while they may close the buildings, they can't stop the Church as the people of God!

Health and Productivity

Not long ago, the US Embassy in Kenya sent out a notification of a cholera outbreak in the country.  There have been 3000 cases with sixty deaths so far.   It made me think of a research paper that I wrote for one of my classes on the correlation between health and productivity.  We all know of organizations who do great work in addressing health issues around the world.  Two that come to mind immediately for me are Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Mercy Ships.

While we laud their work, there may be another motivation for us to address health, than simply for the sake of health.  There is a great deal of evidence that health and productivity, or the economic development of a nation, may be linked.  There is also a great deal of evidence that health and per capita income are linked.  Therefore, if the health of a person is increased, their income may be increased, which may lead to the income of an entire nation to be increased.  This is part of the reason why the Millennium Development Goals focused on health, and why the Sustainable Development Goals that I mentioned last week continue to focus on health.

As it relates to physical health, there have been great strides made around the world in the last fifty years.  According to the World Health Organization:

•  In 1950, 280 of every 1000 children died before their fifth birthday; by 2002, that number has fallen to 120 per 1000 births in low-income countries, 37 in middle-income countries, and 7 in high income countries.   
• Some important diseases have been largely controlled, eradicated or nearly eliminated, such as smallpox, rubella, and polio. 
• There are 17,000 fewer children dying every day in 2012 than in 1990, however nearly 18,000 children still died every day in 2012.  There amounts to the loss of over six million children each year due to preventable diseases. 
  
• Many children who survive suffer from malnutrition, malaria, and water borne diseases.   The efficiency cost of hunger is significant, as those who suffer feel weak, lacking in energy, are more susceptible to infection and other illnesses, and may have physical and cognitive impairment due to nutrient deficiencies.   
• One study suggests that the elimination of undernourishment in Sub-Saharan Africa would raise the economic growth rate from 0.34-4.63 percentage points.  Another study showed that an increase in calories intake by employees increased productivity in a construction firm in Kenya and agricultural productivity in Sierra Leone.  Current evidence indicates that undernutrition is the underlying cause of death in an estimated 45% of all deaths among children under the age of five. Malnutrition or undernourishment can be tied to income.    
• Malaria is another significant disease that affects the supply of labor due to the high death rate and the productivity of laborers to the point that economists suggest that the growth rate of a country may decrease by 0.23-1.3%.  
  
• Malaria can be contracted almost regardless of income.  According to the World Health Organization, 3.2 billion people are at risk for contracting malaria; in 2013, 198 million cases occurred, and the disease killed approximately 584,000 people.   On average, malaria kills a child every minute.
•  Tuberculosis is one of the world’s biggest infectious killers with an estimated nine million new cases in 2013, and an estimated 1.5 million deaths. 
• Waterborne diseases kill two million children annually per year, and include such diseases as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and work infections, to name just a few.   Adults more typically survive these diseases but their productivity is impaired while sick.   Water borne diseases can very much be tied to income.
• Child labor continues to be a widespread problem as well, which often results in physical stunting of children, as well as exposure to cruel and exploitative working conditions.   The International Labor Office (ILO) estimates that there are around 120 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 who are working fulltime, with another 130 million children working half time.These numbers do not include those children who work at home for their parents or guardians.  However simply banning child labor will not improve the situation, as many of the children survive from the meager wages that are earned.   Rather, raising the per capita income may result in a decrease in child labor and an increase in health.

There have been significant improvements in health however it is apparent that there remains a great deal of work to be done.   The impact of bad health on the human capital within a country is significant and can significantly impact a person’s personal income, a country’s productivity, and the national GDP.

This chart shows the correlation between health and income, and the effect on life, very well.

Development is sometimes referred to as a "headless heart" when it is done only based on

compassion without looking at the big picture.  This reminder of the importance of health on productivity, which then leads to the health of nations and its citizens, reminds us that people are the solution when given a fair and equal opportunity, such as health.

[Side note:  The other interesting thing that I read recently is that they continue to measure happiness of citizens in various nations, and have found that happiness levels off after people reach a certain income level (and it's not that high of an income level either).  This diplomat then said that countries make a mistake when they continue to make it their singular goal to see that their country continue to grow in wealth year after year...maybe the focus needs to be somewhere else...something to think about.]

Extreme Poverty Worldwide and in Sub-Saharan Africa

I wrote a few months ago that I have started my PhD in Sustainable Development and Diplomacy.  I have completed my first class, am well into my second class, and have started the research that will go toward my dissertation.

The study of Sustainable Development has been a source of interest for me for many years.  Many of you are familiar with the Millennium Development Goals that were set forward by the UN through the partnership of 189 countries in the year 2000 and which concluded in 2015.  There were eight key goals, which included halving extreme poverty, a goal that was reported to be accomplished.  Since then, a new initiative has started, called Sustainable Development Goals, which has 17 goals to be achieved by the year 2030.

The first of the Sustainable Development Goals is to "end extreme poverty in all its forms everywhere" (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs).  It also seeks to ensure :social protection for poor and vulnerable people, to increase access to basic services, and to support those harmed by conflict and climate-related disasters."  This is a lofty goal and it would be amazing if it could be accomplished.  But we need to dig a bit deeper.

The UN site states that, in 2013, an estimated 767 million people lived below the international poverty line of $1.90 a day — down from 1.7 billion people in 1999. That figure reflects a decrease in the global poverty rate from 28 per cent in 1999 to 11 per cent in 2013. The most significant progress was seen in Eastern and SouthEastern Asia, where the rate declined from 35 per cent in 1999 to 3 per cent in 2013. In contrast, 42 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa continued to subsist in conditions of extreme poverty in 2013.

These results sound very impressive, and often when people are asked how these results were accomplished (which I have asked many times) the answer often is "through aid and development programs run by the UN or large international non-profits."  However, that is not the case.  Much of the recent reduction in extreme poverty was achieved NOT by aid programs but by business development and employment, specifically in India and China.  For China, much of it came in the form of manufacturing.  For India, much of it has come through the service industry.

This is very important for us to realize and bears repeating:  The massive reduction of those living in extreme poverty came because of business development and the creation of jobs.  

It is amazing what China and India have accomplished, as can be seen in the table below.  China went from 60% in extreme poverty to 4% and India went from 45% to 15%.  Wow!  Amazing!  Praise God!

Unfortunately, while the number of people globally who live in extreme poverty is reducing, it is still increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa as shown by this table:

Sub-Saharan Africa went from 276 million in extreme poverty to 389 million.  If you look at the percentages, it looks like there has been progress - 54% to 41%, but the actual number of people living in extreme poverty increased by 113 million people.  That is shocking and disheartening, and tells me the efforts we have made in business development are very small and not enough.

Next week Monday I leave for Nigeria, where the ministry of Discipling Marketplace Leaders is progressing in Abuja, Kaduna, Jos, and Lagos.  Yet Nigeria is one of the key countries struggling with an increase in poverty, which I referred to in a blog in November of last year.

Quartz Africa, which is a news website, says this:

Despite its vast oil riches and impressive economic growth, Nigeria has struggled to lift its people out of poverty over the past three decades.  That fact stands out in the World Bank's 2017 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals which shows that 35 million more Nigerians were living in extreme poverty in 2013 than in 1990.  The Atlas tracks the progress countries are making to meet 17 development goals set out by the United Nations, such as reducing economic inequality, the use of clean energy, and literacy rates.  Among the 10 most populous countries for which data is available, only Nigeria recorded an increase in the number of citizens who live in extreme poverty over the period of the study.  The Atlas defines "extreme poverty" as living on less than $1.90 a day. 

Can Nigeria reverse this trend?  What will it take for the most populous country in Africa, teeming with the potential for innovation and entrepreneurship, to make a difference not only for Nigerians but as a leader in Sub-Saharan Africa?

What will the next thirteen years bring for ending extreme poverty and which countries will take the lead and how?  What is the role of the global church in this?  What can you and I do as individuals, following our calling to compassion and having a mind and heart for the poor?

Please pray along with us over these next weeks as we seek to change the mindset about work and teach business skills that can help businesses grow to the next level.

Examining Our Life

Happy New Year to all!

It is during this time that many of us spend time reflecting on the past year and anticipating what may be coming in 2018.  I was sent the following blog and found it to be very helpful in framing the thought process, and so I thought today would be a good day to share it with you, in case you too may find it helpful.

From our family to yours, we wish you all a blessed year, filled with God's grace, mercy and peace!

The Great Annual Examen

Reflecting BACK on the past 12 months and anticipating the NEXT 12 months

by Stephen W. Smith

http://www.steveandgwensmith.com/the-great-annual-examen/

400 years ago, Ignatius of Loyola crafted a genius way of prayer. His method helped a person reflect back upon their day and their life in terms of how one experienced God.  He developed a prayer called, The Daily Examen. It is both a challenging and comforting way to trace the movement of God in one’s life. After having spent a solid year in study, reflection and prayer using Ignatius’ method of prayer, I’ve come to the conclusion that Ignatius was a genius. I only wish now that I had known about this decades earlier. Never before, had anyone in the history of the church, shared such a bold new way of spending time with God, ourselves and our own hearts.  This Great Annual Examen is based on Ignatius’ way of reflection and prayer.

Ignatius developed a prayer called, the Daily Examen. It’s a method where we take the past 24 hours to think and pray through our day to raise the awareness of our own hearts of how God has moved within the past 24 hours. This method was something I made a commitment to do for one hour a day during every day of 2017. It’s been revolutionary. (At the bottom of this blog, I offer you a link to some resources that i recommend).  But I wanted something more as a review of our year–a way of thinking and praying through the past 12 months as a way of giving us a sort of GPS–a way to really see where we are right now on life’s journey and by God’s grace and help–to get to where we want to go!

As we all have our pro’s and con’s with New Year Resolutions, I wanted to see if I might develop what I want to call The Great Annual Examen. It’s a simple question and answer exercise where you work through some questions to help you reflect on the past year and anticipate the next year to come. It’s called the “examen” because in this exercise we take an examination of how we’ve “done” in life—on the journey and in different aspects. In some ways, many of us will admit that this past year has “undone” us—we’ve felt spent, done or only surviving and perhaps barely surviving at that! However you reflect upon this past year, it’s my hope that you’ll have a GPS—a sort of marker that will help you discern where you are and how you are and where you want to go this next year.

It is a way of reviewing the past 12 months but in doing so, to allow ourselves to evaluate our life in 5 major categories: our physical health, our emotional health, our relational health, our vocational health, and our spiritual health. While every part of life is indeed spiritual, we may find it helpful to break down life into a few major categories. I’ve done this for you here and given you a final category of your spiritual life to help you reflect more in a focused way on you and God.

Sit with each category and work through the questions slowly. Slow is the key. This is not an exercise where the “first response is the right response.” In fact, in thinking more deeply about each question, you will probably find that a longer look—and a lingering reflection will allow issues and concerns to rise that a quick response will simply negate.

Take a few days to do this rather than one sitting. Take the days between Christmas and the New Year for example. By looking back and gaining insight, we will not be so apt as to repeat the mistakes we made this past year.

Section 1: General Examination of My Life

These 10 questions will help prime the pump for you to be reflective and mindful of your past year

1. What are the most important events that have happened to me or in me this past year?
2. What are the greatest breakthroughs in any category of my life this past year? (physical, emotionally, relationally, vocationally, spiritually, with other people)
3. What has been my greatest struggle in my life this past year?
4. What has been my greatest and deepest loss this past year?
5. What has been the area that has consumed my thinking, attention and focus this past year? (health, relationship, future, etc)
6. Where have I felt most vulnerable in my life? (What area of your life do you feel the most naked, susceptible, and exposed?)
7. Where I have I most experienced the presence of God this past year and why?
8. In the past 12 months, where I have experienced the greatest sense of consolation (peace, happiness, contentment, shalom, serenity, beauty, etc).
9. In the past 12 months, what area of my life has given me the most desolation (pre-occupation, distress, sadness, depression, anxiety, fear, brutality, etc)
10. What ONE word would tend to sum up this past year?

Section Two: Five Categories of My Life

My physical health:

1. List five words that describe my physical condition and well-being this past year.
2. How many hours of sleep can I honestly say I get each night? (8 is recommended).
3. What choices have you given attention to regarding your health this past 12 months?
4. What specific goals do you want to achieve in the future 12 months (better blood pressure, weight management, exercise, etc)

My Emotional Health

1. List five FEELINGS that you believe had dominated (positive or negative from your perspective) your life this past year:
2. What were you doing; who were you doing this with and where were you physically when you believe you were the HAPPIEST this past year:
3. What were you doing; who were you doing this with and where were you when you experienced the greatest feeling of SADNESS this past year:
4. What area of your life gives you the greatest sense of internal stress?
5. How do you feel about your emotional well-being this past year?

My Vocational Health

1. List five words which best describe your job/vocation/career?
2. This past year, have you lived to work or worked to live? Circle one or the other.
3. Is your job right now giving you a sense of contentment and satisfaction? Why or why not?
4. How are you feeling about your vocational journey:

• I want to make a change this next year.
• I want to continue as I am and just as I am.
• I would like to use this next year to study and prepare for a vocational change.
• I want to reassess and evaluate my vocational journey this next year.
• I want to re-position myself in regard to my work this next year.



I believe I work ____________ hours a week. Next year, I would like to work ___________ hours a week. To do this, I will need to :

My Relational Health

1. List the names of people who have been life-giving to you this past year:
2. Give a letter grade to your over-all sense of having community—a sense of sharing life with a few other people. A-Excellent, B-Very good. C-Average D-Really lacking in friends
3. If your life style and work schedule and present realities conducive to having the relationships you feel you both want and need. Explain more in a few sentences.

My Spiritual Health

1. List five words that would describe your spiritual health: (distant, intimate, excellent, very poor, no time for God, etc)
2. How would you describe your prayer life this past year?
3. How do you feel about how you have worshipped this past year?
4. Describe how you are feeling about your church experience:
5. What feels lacking to you in terms of your relationship with God?
6. How has your image of God changed or matured this past year?
7. List five words that would characterize your image of God?
8. How has your relationship with God been challenged this past year?
9. What are the 3 most important spiritual take-a-ways from this past year that you never want to forget:
10. Where was your deepest spiritual struggle—the place of the greatest wrestling with God or the place of your deepest lament?
11. What people do you feel the most spiritually connected to in your life:

Prayer of Gratitude:

End your time of The Annual Great Examen in a time of prayer. Express your heart in gratitude for all the specific things, events, people, and growth you’ve experienced or witnessed. Be specific in your thanksgiving. Consider doing a Prayer of Gratitude using an acrostic of G-R-A-T-I-T-U-D-E. With each letter of GRATITUDE, express thanks for something specific. Example:  G- I am grateful for my sister G-loria.

Prayer for the Future Year:

Spend some moments asking for God’s blessing on the future 12 months. Consider praying the beautiful prayer of Thomas Merton:

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though

I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Consider the Blessing by the Irish Priest, John O’Donohue. 

For Longing

Poem by John O’Donohue

blessed be the longing that brought you here

and quickens your soul with wonder.

may you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire

that disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.

may you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease

to discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.

may the forms of your belonging – in love, creativity, and friendship –

be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.

may the one you long for long for you.

may your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.

may a secret providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling.

may your mind inhabit your life with the sureness

with which your body inhabits the world.

may your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage.

may you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.

may you know the urgency with which God longs for you.

Resources:

Here is a link where I recommend the top books I believe are good for the soul to read; and I give several spiritual exercises including the Daily Examen for your consideration:  Here’s the Link for Resources. 

Developed by Stephen W. Smith,  President and Spiritual Director of Potter’s Inn (The Great Annual Examen is version 1:1, December 2017, All rights reserved and Copyrighted @2017. Stephen W. Smith  Links are provided for further reading and study and books recommended are found at the bottom of this document).

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