Message from the Stream ─ Go With the Flow

Ruby Radford, in her book, Message from the Stream-"Go with the Flow," takes the reader on a spiritual journey by way of her encounter with a stream at a spiritual retreat. Her book is filled with inspiration and motivation for Christians who may become stalled on their spiritual journey. Using her gift as a poet, she interjects poetry and short stories to help tell her story. In the introduction she asks the reader to "trust in the Creator of streams of life," as a prerequisite for the faith journey that unfolds in the book.

As a student in a spiritual direction class while in seminary, the class, along with the professor, traveled to a retreat site in Pennsylvania "to practice the presence of God." Following the instructions of the professor, the students stood on a hillside in silence overlooking a stream of water. While looking at the stream, Ruby engages in a dialogue with the stream. Obedient to the voice from the stream to, "go with the flow," she relaxed and spiritually flowed with the stream. During the flow, situations and circumstances that had caused a leak in her faith became plugged with the knowledge that God knows and is with her. In other words, she was not walking alone. The voice from the stream encouraged her to stay on the path that she was traveling and made it clear that the Holy Spirit would help navigate her through the debris and obstacles that sought to interrupt her flow. She comes away from the stream with a better understanding of her call to ordain ministry in light of the physical, mental, and spiritual interrupters that sought to alter her walk. She comes out of the experience advocating for spiritual direction teaching as a means to aid Christians in establishing a closer relationship with God. She comes away from the retreat with her own personal definition of faith, "Faith is not just a statement that one makes but is the life that one lives in concert with the Holy Spirit."

As the book comes to an end, Ruby offers spiritual disciplines suggestions of retreat (alone time with God), and praying (talk to God about everything, all the time), as necessary practice to draw closer to God. Adding these disciplines to those of reading the Bible and meditation, the reader has a good starter kit for spiritual direction practice. Practice is at the core of spiritual direction. Practice does not make perfect but it does make closer our relationship with God.