50 Ways to Talk to God is Blowing My Mind…

… Whenever I hear the phrase, “personal relationship with Christ”, I immediately have evangelical flashbacks — complete with hand waving, tongue speaking, and emotionally weeping. All set to the soundtrack of bad, romantically ambiguous Christian soft rock.

Maybe that’s why so many converts I know have such an adverse reaction to a little charismatic in their Catholicism.

Enter Meg Hunter-Kilmer and her excellent post about getting personal with Christ. Yes, I said “excellent.” Her 50 Ways To Talk To God is one of the most astonishing things I’ve read in quite a long while. Simple ways. Ways that I’d never thought of. Ways that you want to share with your kids or that person you know who’s going through a very dark night. Ways that are totally doable and must be read.

I know there are people out there – lots of them – who show up Sunday morning and call it good for the week. I know there are people who check Catholic on forms but don’t have any kind of a relationship with Christ. I guess I just figured there was a solid core of believers who were in love with Christ– or at least trying to be.

But I’m reading Sherry Weddell’s Forming Intentional Disciples and it’s breaking my heart. Almost half of Catholics, she says, don’t believe God is a personal God. They don’t even believe it’s possible to have a relationship with him. Most of us don’t pray beyond what’s required and when we do it’s not about love so much as a sense of duty. We might be committed to the Church, but we’re not really committed to Christ.

Guilty.

She goes on to write;

Here are 50 ways to approach prayer like it’s more than just something to get through so you can get on with your week. Try one, try them all, but try something.

Try something. And then bookmark her post and come back later to try some more.