Our last day in Norway was blessed, and on a spiritual high. All of us listened to Dick Woodward’s God-story, “The Four Spiritual Secrets” kindly given me by his daughter Virginia. Highly recommended and totally gripping. Dick has an engaging speaking style, just perfect for an audiobook.
Dick is now a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down, but the author of the phenomenally successful (and massive) audio Bible survey, The Mini-Bible College, which has blessed my husband Roy’s commutes for many years. I have met him twice at his home, and have been struck by his good humour and calm confidence and wisdom.
The four spiritual secrets are
I can’t, but He can, and I am in Him, and He is in me.
I am not, but he is, and I am in Him, and He is in me
I don’t want to, but He wants to, and I am in him, and He is in me
I didn’t, but He did, because I am in Him, and He is in me.
How do you learn them? By reaching a point of helplessness.
I first heard Dick’s teaching in 1990, I think, but I didn’t know how to rely on God, or what relying on God meant in my areas of competence.
Through various circumstances, and some adversity, I have happily (I think) reached the point at which I don’t know how I would function in those very same areas without the grace and help of God.
It is a strangely freeing and happy stage. I know I need God to write, to run my house, to parent, to run a business, whatever, and increasingly am doing things by prayer.
Here’s Dick Woodward’s website, www.4SPIRITUALSECRETS.COM. It also has a link to an online Bible study, his Mini-Bible College. I also recommend his audiobook, The Four Spiritual Secrets.
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK