Every employee in InterVarsity, from campus intern to donor services to Tom Lin, has the same first item on their job description. EVERYONE.
To be a maturing disciple of Jesus Christ.
When was the last time you asked yourself: am I maturing in my faith? How have a grown closer to Jesus this year? Am I growing in intimacy with God? What about Christ-like character?
If you speak the same way at 25 (or 32, or 40) as you did when you were 15, a doctor might say you are developmentally delayed. I think it’s true for our life with God, too. If we pray the same way we did when we were a student, or first on staff, we might say that we are “spiritually delayed.”
Are we maturing disciples or are we just learning more leadership skills? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for developing leaders, but only if we attend to our soul as well. Unfortunately, there are too many examples of leaders who fudge the truth, take credit for something they didn’t write, and lack tender compassion. Leaders who are soul-deficient, if not soulless. If we do not attend to our soul, we cannot mature as followers of Jesus.
A few years ago, I was introduced to the idea of ATTUNEMENT. It comes to us from the world of neuroscience. Folks like Curt Thompson, Jim Wilder, Karl Lehmann (the originator of Immanuel Prayer), all psychiatrists and followers of Jesus, have introduced thousands to the healing power of an interactive connection to Jesus, which is much more relational than anything you could get from a manuscript study. Again, don’t get me wrong—manuscript study has its benefits, but we need more than the analytical part of our brain to be in relationship with someone.
Think of attunement in this way: remember when you were a small child and you fell on the playground and skinned your knee? There was dirt, and maybe small pebbles, stuck to your knee as you saw blood beginning to ooze out. You might have felt scared, alone, hurt. Then your mother, or some other adult, came near. They put their arm around you, held you, asked what had happened and where it hurt, perhaps wiped your tears. They probably then took you to a place to get cleaned up and bandaged your wound. The wound was still there, but you felt better: there was safety in knowing that someone saw you, took the time to listen to your story and just, were with you in your situation. That’s attunement! When we connect relationally with the living Jesus.
Attunement is at the heart of Immanuel Journaling. And Immanuel Journaling is the practice I use often to help me grow in intimacy with God.
Immanuel Journaling 2.2025.pdf
If you have had the joy of receiving Immanuel Prayer, you know that, in it, you make this interactive connection with Jesus. Immanuel Journaling is the same. It is a guided form of journaling which helps us connect with God’s tender care for us, his understanding of our situation. In traditional journaling, we speak to God; what makes Immanuel Journaling unique, is that God speaks to us!
