Chat Try

by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston �I know some of you would rather haul bricks than write, but I think you�ll find these exercises valuable. Definitely not like your old 8th-grade essays.� I looked across the room at the twenty-five or so pairs of eyes fixed on me. Some were curious, others clearly doubtful. The women had gathered on this sunny Saturday in Maine for their annual church retreat. They knew the focus of the retreat was the Reality of the Presence of God, but what most didn�t know was that they would spend the day mining their pasts for the footprints of God in every woe and wrinkle, mess and miracle of their lives. I had proposed to them that, unlike Tolkien�s Sam the Hobbit who wondered what sort of a tale he�d fallen into, they�d been intentionally placed in a specific time and place for a purpose. By examining the people, places, pivotal moments and outcomes of their story so far, they�d learn to see patterns, themes and connections often overlooked...