Cindy Ruble
CBF Field Personnel, Malaysia
“Who do you want to be and how are you going to get there?” my spirituality professor, Dr. Glenn Hinson, asked.
It is a simple question with a complex answer. “I want 10 pages,” he said. Ten pages?!
That simple question has reverberated throughout my life. “Who do you want to be and how are you going to get there?”
The “how” is always the same—with intentionality.
Growing spiritually takes intentionality
It doesn’t just happen
It requires self-reflection
Self-examination
Raw honesty
Commitment to grow and become more
To mirror more each day the One we follow
Day by day
Moment by moment
I remember Dr. Hinson’s reading Scripture and a student asking what version of the Bible he was reading. He smiled and said his own. He was reading in Greek and translating it as he read. Dr. Hinson was always intentional in his spirituality, intentional in his scholarship. He modeled a life of faith and nurtured spiritual formation in all his students. We were expected to think, to draw deeply from scripture, to ask questions, to reflect, to journal.
I loved Dr. Hinson’s classes. They resonated. I remember reading the book Prayers by Michel Quoist in Dr. Hinson’s class. Dr. Hinson asked us to read one of Quoist’s prayers each day and then journal one of our own. I still have my journal. It is sitting beside me on my sofa in Malaysia as I write this. I learned to journal prayers about all of life. My favorite way of praying is journaling prayers about ordinary life. Reflecting is good for the soul. It helps me to grow. It also helps me to see when God has answered my prayers because sometimes I miss God’s answers.
Dr. Hinson used to start every spirituality class with 10 minutes of silence. Awkward at first; but oh, how I grew to love it! It calms the soul. I didn’t grow up in a church tradition that taught or nurtured meditation. Yet Psalm 46:10 tells us to “be still and know that I am God.” I now regularly meditate. Meditation is stillness. Meditation is intentional silence that leaves space for God. Joshua 1:8 instructs us to meditate on the book of law day and night, so that we may be careful to do everything written in it and then we will be prosperous and successful. Psalm 1:2 tells us that the person who meditates on the law of God is like a tree planted by streams of water and that that person will prosper. It has been 30 years since I was in Dr. Hinson’s class and I still hear his voice in my life. He still guides me. Thank you, Dr. Hinson!
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.