A Spiritual Toolbag

by Lori Wilson

I was recently visiting my youngest daughter when we needed a tool to fix something in her home. "It's in my toolbag in the closet," she said. When I pulled it out, I was surprised by its size - much larger than mine. "We should trade toolbags," I suggested. "Mine is about a quarter this size, and I have to use a basket for the overflow."

She laughed. "No thanks! I'm collecting the tools I need. I might need all that space someday."

She's right, I realized. Why not aim high? Have a big, empty toolbag ready to fill with whatever you might need.

It made me wonder about our spiritual toolbags - those collections of practices and prayers we gather over time. Lectio Divina, the Examen, Centering Prayer. Visio Divina, Audio Divina, Eco Divina. Adoration, Mass, contemplative silence. The wisdom Ignatius offers for navigating desolation and consolation. Spiritual direction itself - another person helping us notice what we miss on our own.

These are good tools. Real tools. Practices that open us to God's presence and movement in our lives.

But here's what catches my attention: when I look at how Jesus taught his disciples, I notice he tends to invite rather than prescribe. "Come and see." "Abide in me." "Ask, seek, knock." When they asked him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1), he didn't give them a rigid formula - he offered a pattern, a way in. When he spoke about prayer in Matthew 6, he said "go into your room, close the door" - inviting them into solitude and intimacy with the Father.

Even his teaching about worry becomes a spiritual practice: "Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the birds of the air." Pay attention. Notice. Let what you see draw you back to trust.

Jesus offers us relational practices, not techniques to master. The tools become doorways, not destinations. And perhaps that's the difference worth noticing, we're not collecting spiritual tools to become expert practitioners. We're gathering practices that help us stay awake, stay connected, stay open to the God who is already present and already at work.

The more practices we have at our disposal, the more ways we have to recognize and respond to God's invitation in different seasons, different struggles, different moments of grace.

For Reflection:

• What spiritual practices or tools have you collected in your own "toolbag"? Which ones do you reach for most often?

• Are there practices on the list above that you've never tried but feel curious about? What draws you to explore them?

• When has a particular spiritual practice helped you notice God's presence in a way you might have otherwise missed?

• Is your spiritual toolbag feeling too full, too empty, or just right for this season? What might God be inviting you to add - or perhaps set down for now?

Prayer:

God of invitation, Thank you for giving us so many ways to turn toward you - practices and prayers, silence and song, solitude and community.

Help us gather the tools we need not to master the spiritual life but to stay awake to your presence, to keep showing up, to remember we're not doing this work alone.

Teach us when to reach for familiar practices and when to try something new. Show us when our toolbag needs expanding and when it needs emptying out.

Most of all, remind us that these practices are simply doorways into relationship with you - the One who is always inviting, always present, always at work.

Amen.