New Identity Magazine

IN PURSUIT OF INTIMACY: CORPORATE WORSHIP

Hannah Helms — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 16:52:49 +0000

Photo Credit: Susan Lloyd | Flickr (Creative Commons) Prior to having children, I had not considered that participating in a faith community could be an act of spiritual discipline. I have learned over the past three years that the 10 minutes, and sometimes 3 hours, before church on any given Sunday tend to be the most unholy minutes or hours of the week. They are prime-time for marital discord…

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IN PURSUIT OF INTIMACY: SIMPLICITY

Hannah Helms — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 17:59:27 +0000

Photo Credit: Steven Leonti | Flickr (Creative Commons) The discipline of simplicity is, simply put, the practice of living with less. This practice is unique from the other spiritual disciplines that we have explored in this series, in that the need to be intentional about living with less applies specifically to those living in societies and situations that allow people to live with more than…

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IN PURSUIT OF INTIMACY: REST

Hannah Helms — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 15:49:55 +0000

Back in 2007, during my junior year of college, I was a resident assistant in the dorms, and I spent that entire year going to bed at 2:00 am then waking up each morning at 8:00 am. I felt tired most of the time, but not particularly exhausted. That six-hour stint of sleep each night was enough to keep me going and fuel my class schedule, dorm responsibilities, on campus job…

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IN PURSUIT OF INTIMACY: PRAYER

Hannah Helms — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 15:00:55 +0000

Photo Credit: MOTOKI Plasticboystudio | Flickr (Creative Commons) My earliest memories of praying are centered around the dinner table when I was a little girl. Our family had a nightly ritual of clasping one another’s hands, swinging our arms up and down and praying “The Lord is Good to Me” in sing-song rhythm before each meal. It was a blessing designed just for us children. As we got older…

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IN PURSUIT OF INTIMACY: MEDITATION

Hannah Helms — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 21:57:35 +0000

Photo Credit: Marina Caprara | Flickr (Creative Commons) I sit in the chapel, cross-legged on the floor. Through the closed door I hear the dull thud of doors slamming shut, the hum of students conversing, and the buzz and bustle of a regular Tuesday evening. I fidget and move around so that I’m kneeling, and then prostrate myself on the floor. I breathe in and out, close my eyes…

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IN PURSUIT OF INTIMACY: SPIRITUAL PRACTICES THAT CAN GROW US CLOSER TO GOD

Hannah Helms — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:17:58 +0000

“It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” I’ve lost track of the number of times that I’ve heard this phrase uttered in reference to Christianity. The idea of being in a relationship with God is one of the things that sets Christians apart from other belief systems. We are not bound by the obligation to adhere to a rigid set of rules. There is an appeal in this—in the idea that the God of the…

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FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE

Hannah Helms — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 19:17:29 +0000

Photo by: Kyle Steed @ Flickr (Creative Commons) When my husband and I got married four years ago we discussed whether we ought to write our own wedding vows or use a more traditional format. Traditional wedding vows are pretty comprehensive – for richer and for poorer, for better and for worse, and quite a few things in between. Ultimately, we chose traditional vows, in part…

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HIS & HERS (GENDER ROLES SERIES)

Hannah Helms — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 17:37:25 +0000

Amidst the unsolicited advice and passionate opinions from friends, relatives, and strangers on the street, one of the greatest challenges that prospective parents face is the task of sifting through the endless sea of information about parenting. Hopeful parents must contend with a wealth of parenting philosophies, mommy blogs, safety information and product reviews. It is further complicated for…

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