This week, as I reflect on resistance to my spiritual disciplines (Sabbath,Solitude, Prayer, Fasting, Community), I keep returning to the vital importance of posture—our physical stance—and orientation—the direction of our hearts and minds. When we recite the shema every Sunday, I believe that meaning follows posture and orientation. It’s a picture of life itself. The choices we make, the ways we spend our time and resources—all flow from these two things.
When Jesus calls us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, I believe He is inviting us to this kind of aligned posture and orientation. Resistance, then, is anything—big or small—that works against this alignment toward God.
The good news is that, by God’s grace, posture and orientation are within our reach to nurture. This is why we practice these spiritual disciplines—the Practices of the Way of Jesus. Dallas Willard describes them as “practices that we engage in, through God’s grace, to place ourselves before Him so that He can transform us into the kind of person who naturally and easily does what Jesus would do if He were in our place.” These practices, in other words, “enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.”
They are not about proving ourselves to God, but about placing ourselves in the stream of His transforming presence.
The Unspoken Moments That Shape Us
Looking back on these past seven days to write these Dave’s Reflections has been a new and life-giving practice for me. While on Kauai, I found myself quietly grateful for the smallest things—like seeing Tammi sleep in past 6 a.m. for the first time in a long while. What a gift it was to simply watch her rest, knowing how rare and needed that was.
Later, I re-read my journal entry about our Waimea Canyon hike to see two waterfalls, our tubing adventure, sharing bowls of Hamura’s saimin (with beef stick, of course), dinner at Break and Feast, and soaking in the small-town feel of Kauai with Tammi and Joshua. Each memory was more than just an activity; it was a shared moment of joy, presence, and connection.
It struck me again how our most treasured experiences are not just about the places we visit or the photos we take, but about being with others in those moments. In our Instagram world, it’s easy to believe that the curated image is the “life well-lived.” But the truth is, we aren’t formed by selfies—we are formed by experiences shared with people we love.
This is exactly what I see in the life of Jesus. In our Green Lettering the Book ofMark sessions, we’ve noticed how often His most powerful moments weren’t just the miracles themselves, but the personal ways He touched, spoke to, and engaged with people (Mark 9:27; Mark 10:16). Those interactions revealed His nearness, His care, and His love.
Our God is deeply personal. He invites us not just to witness His works from afar, but to be with Him, to experience His presence, and to let those quiet, shared moments form us into His likeness.
Living Every Moment in God’s Nearness
The best way to experience God’s nearness is not just in special moments—it’s in the flow of our everyday lives. Isn’t that the goal? That in every part of who we are and what we do, we sense His presence and walk with Him. I long for the day when God’s nearness feels as natural as breathing—not something I notice only when I set aside a special time or go to a particular place, but a constant reality woven into my being.
This is the life Jesus invites us into: life in the Kingdom of God here and now. A life where we deny ourselves, surrender fully, and follow Him daily. And as we live into the Practices of the Way of Jesus, our whole selves—our thoughts, habits, relationships, and desires—become open to His transforming presence.
When that happens, His nearness becomes evident in how we relate to others, how we speak, how we listen, how we forgive, and how we love. So let’s keep our posture and orientation fixed on Jesus. And let’s treasure the quiet, unspoken moments that quietly shape us into His likeness.