I have been a Christian for most of my life.
I grew up knowing God. Loving God. Trying to follow God in the ways I had been taught — going to church, reading my Bible, praying, serving. I was not a nominal Christian going through the motions. I was genuinely trying.
But there was a whole world of practice I had never been introduced to.
A depth of intentional, structured, ancient spiritual discipline that the Church has carried for centuries — and that somehow had never quite made it into my faith formation in any meaningful way.
I did not know what I was missing.
Until I did.
The Cohort That Changed Everything
Through my work I was given an extraordinary opportunity — the chance to participate in a Spiritual Formation cohort developed in partnership with Fuller Theological Seminary.
I want to be honest about what I expected going in —
I expected to learn some things. I expected it to be interesting. I did not expect it to reshape the way I practice faith at a foundational level.
But that is exactly what it did.
What made it different from anything I had experienced before was not just the content — though the content was rich and deep and more practically useful than anything I had encountered in years. What made it different was the combination of three things that I have come to believe are essential to real spiritual growth:
Time and space to actually practice. Honest community to practice alongside. And tools — real, concrete tools — to put in my bag and carry forward.
Be With Jesus. Be Like Jesus. Do What Jesus Did.
John Mark Comer — in his spiritual formation curriculum Practicing the Way — describes the goal of discipleship in three simple steps:
Be with Jesus. Be like Jesus. Do what Jesus did.
That framework stopped me in my tracks the first time I encountered it — because it is so simple and so complete at the same time. Discipleship is not primarily about what you know. It is about who you are becoming. And you become like Jesus the same way you become like anyone — by spending time with Him, by practicing the things He practiced, and by doing the things He did in the world.
That is what the cohort gave me.
Not just information about spiritual disciplines — but the time and space and community to actually try them. To sit with them. To discover which ones opened something in me and which ones I would return to again and again.
The Practice That Changed Me Most
I want to tell you about one practice in particular — because it is the one that most surprised me and most stayed with me.
Listening Prayer.
I had prayed my whole life. Talked to God, thanked God, asked God, wrestled with God. But I had never been intentionally taught to simply — listen on behalf of others.
In our cohort we were given instructions and then given space to listen to God on behalf of one another. To be still and quiet and open — and to receive whatever came. A verse. An image. A word of encouragement. A sense of something that was hard to name but unmistakably present.
And then one by one we shared what we had received.
I want to tell you what happened in that room — because I have no other explanation for it than God.
As each person shared what they had heard or seen or sensed on behalf of someone else in the group — the themes connected. Not because anyone had planned it or coordinated it or known what anyone else was going to say. But because the same God was speaking to all of us — and He was saying something consistent and true and deeply personal to the person it was for.
I watched it happen again and again — in the cohort and later in the small group I led.
People who came in skeptical left undone. People who had never experienced God that personally before encountered Him in a way that changed their understanding of what prayer could be.
That is what spiritual formation does when it is practiced in honest community.
It makes the invisible God suddenly, undeniably present.
The Practices I Still Carry
The cohort introduced me to a full range of spiritual disciplines — and I continue to draw from all of them in different seasons and in different ways. But there are a few that have become the most consistent threads in my daily and weekly practice:
The Examen A practice of pausing at the beginning and the end of the day to recognize God’s presence in it. Not rushing past the ordinary moments but looking forward and backward and asking — where was God in this? Where did I feel most alive? Where am I struggling? What does God have in store for me today? It is a practice of paying attention — of training yourself to notice the God who is already there in the moments you might otherwise miss.
Gratitude Journaling Simple and profound — the daily practice of naming what you are grateful for. Not because everything is good, but because there is always something good if you are willing to look for it. Gratitude does not deny the hard things. It refuses to let the hard things have the only voice.
Intentional Prayer for the People You Love One of the things I brought directly into the Old to New journals is the practice of praying specifically and intentionally over the people in your life — your spouse, your children, yourself. Your future spouse or future children if they have not yet arrived. Your grandchildren. The people God has placed in your care and in your heart.
There is something powerful about moving from general prayer — “God bless my family” — to specific, Scripture-rooted, intentional prayer for each person by name. It changes the way you see them. It changes the way you love them. And it changes you.
I wrote about what that choosing looked like in the middle of grief here.
The People Who Practiced Alongside Me
I cannot talk about spiritual formation without talking about community — because formation was never meant to be a solo practice.
In the cohort it was the people who sat beside me — who opened themselves up honestly to God and to one another — who made the practices come alive. Spiritual disciplines practiced alone are powerful. Spiritual disciplines practiced in honest community are transformative.
That is still true for me today.
I continue to meet regularly with a small group through my church — people who have walked with me through whatever life has thrown our way for years now. We have supported one another and listened and cried together. We have shown up for each other’s children. We have sat in hospital rooms and celebrated milestones and held each other in the hard middle of things.
That is discipleship.
Not a program or a curriculum or a cohort — though all of those things have their place. But people. Consistent, faithful, honest people who show up for each other over the long haul.
Be with Jesus. Be like Jesus. Do what Jesus did.
And do it with people who are trying to do the same.
How This Became the Journals
I left that cohort with something I had not walked in before —
A full bag.
Practical tools. Tested practices. A framework for intentional faith that I could actually live out in the ordinary rhythm of a busy life. And a deep, growing conviction that these tools were not meant to stay in a seminary cohort or a church program.
They were meant to be accessible.
To the woman who has never heard the word Examen but who would practice it every day if someone just showed her how. To the mother who wants to pray more intentionally for her children but does not know where to start. To the person in the middle of grief or transition or waiting who needs something more than good intentions to anchor their faith.
That conviction became the Old to New journals. (You can read the full story of how Old to New Creations got its name here).
Not a theology textbook. Not an academic exercise. But a practical, approachable, beautiful tool — designed to help women document God’s faithfulness, practice the disciplines that deepen faith, and move from a hurried life to a holy one.
One intentional page at a time.
These were the tools I eventually found my way to after hitting grief bottom – read that store here.
What I Want You to Know
You do not need a seminary cohort to practice spiritual formation.
You do not need a theology degree or a church program or a perfectly structured quiet time. You need a willingness to show up — to be with Jesus in the ordinary moments of your ordinary life — and to practice, imperfectly and consistently, the things that open you to His presence.
If you want to go deeper into spiritual formation, authors like Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and Ruth Haley Barton have written beautifully on the subject.
Start with one thing.
Try the Examen tonight — just five minutes of looking back over your day and asking where God was in it. Start a gratitude journal — just three things, every morning. Find one person to practice alongside — one honest, faithful person who will show up for you and let you show up for them.
And trust that the God who showed up in a Fuller Seminary cohort and in a small group Listening Prayer session and in a hospital room in the middle of the night —
Is the same God who will show up in your ordinary Tuesday.
He always has. He always will.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” — Philippians 1:6
If this post resonated with you — I would love to know what spiritual practice has been most meaningful in your own faith journey. Share it in the comments below.
And if you are looking for a practical tool to begin or deepen your own spiritual formation practice — the Old to New journals were written for exactly this.
If you’re just starting to follow my story, you can Start Here to go back to the beginning!