If you adopt any of the following suggestions, it will have a big impact on your spiritual growth.
Get to know a homeless person and try to find out how they became homeless.
Read the scriptures of another religion.
Start the day with prayer, meditation, scripture reading, or any spiritual reading. It will set the tone for the day.
At the end of the day, keep a spiritual diary and record where you met God that day or what God taught you. Record your prayers and review them later to see if they were answered.
Use natural breaks in the day, like meals, coffee breaks, or when you shower, drive, exercise or wait in line to think of others in prayer.
Extend your present daily spiritual practice from 15 to 30 minutes or 30 minutes to an hour.
Adopt a child or family in a developing nation through World Vision or a local charity like Save-A-Family-Plan and develop a relationship by writing back when they write you.
Volunteer to visit people in jail, read to the blind, be a friend to the mentally ill, or help prepare meals and clean up at a local church soup kitchen.
Hire the person on the traffic island with the sign that says they will work for food or money.
Attend the place of worship of your own faith regularly if you do not do so.
Prepare yourself before going to your place of worship by praying or reviewing the readings beforehand.
Visit the place of worship of another denomination. For example, if you are Presbyterian attend a Mennonite service.
Visit the place of worship of another religion. Christians could attend a local mosque. Muslims could attend a synagogue.
Get to know someone of a different religion and find out what they believe.
Check out www.beliefnet.com, a vast website where you can learn about any spiritual or religious tradition and dialogue with those in it.
Join an online prayer community like that at www.sacredspace.ie. You can put your prayer requests out there and pray for the requests of others.
Get to know the writings of a major spiritual thinker like Thich Nhat Hahn or Henri Nouwen.
Do a “retreat at home.” Take a whole morning, afternoon, or evening once a week or once a month to pray or meditate more deeply.
Attend a local retreat center like the Michaelite Fathers just outside London, or Five Oaks in Paris, Ontario.
Get to know the Enneagram, a powerful tool for spiritual growth and awareness at http://www.enneagraminstitute.com.
Learn new ways of praying, like Centering Prayer, Ignatian Prayer, Taize Prayer, or learn new ways of reading scripture, such as Lectio Divina.
All these things will help you on your spiritual journey.
Bruce Tallman is a London spiritual director and educator of adults in religion.
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 