Sunday, July 12, 2026 - Go Deep
July 12, 2026 1 Timothy 6:6-16
Deborah Laforet
“Go Deep”
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your
Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
A few weeks ago, at the Church Region Annual Meeting, the Moderator of the United Church,
Rev. Dr. Kimberly Heath, was our keynote speaker. In one of her keynote speeches, she talked about the
four Go’s. It inspired me to create a summer sermon series, based on these four Go’s - Go Small, Go
Deep, Go Preach, and Go with a Buddy. Last week, we focused on Go Small. This week, we’ll explore
Go Deep.
The United Church of Canada, a few years ago, came up with a new mission statement that
seems to have resonated within the church - Bold Discipleship, Deep Spirituality, and Daring Justice. I
think this slogan clearly describes the three priorities of the church. Deep Spirituality is where the
Moderator wanted us to focus. She said going deep with our spirituality might feel boring, but its the
day to day prayer, connecting with Spirit, and the daily discipline that feeds us and gives us the strength
we need to live our daily lives.
Now, I am a person of faith, and I love the bible. I love to dig deep into the stories, and I
especially love discovering twists to those stories. I think after thousands of years, it’s pretty amazing
that people can still read them and learn new things. As a person of faith and as someone who enjoys
our faith stories, and as a minister, who leads others in their faith, you might be surprised, that of the
Moderator’s four Go’s, this one is the most challenging for me. Maybe it’s my life experiences, maybe
it’s my personality, maybe it’s because we live in such a highly distracting society, or probably because
of all the above, I struggle to pray. I struggle with meditation and contemplation. I struggle to regularly
engage in spiritual practices. And I don’t think I’m alone.
A quick search on google, when looking up the benefits of spiritual practices, told me: “Many
spiritual traditions have a long history of using contemplative practices to increase compassion,
2 of 4
empathy, and attention, as well as quiet the mind. Meditation can induce feelings of calm and clear-
headedness as well as improve concentration and attention.” I don’t always trust what AI brings up, but 1
this sounds like what I have been told in many workshops and by many authors about spiritual practices.
And it always sounds so easy! Just start with ten minutes a day. That’s all. Eventually, you’ll be
able to pray, or journal, or meditate for much longer, and it will greatly improve your life. (Silent
Moment.) Guess what? I can’t seem to make it happen.
Now, I’m not going to say I don’t ever go deep with my spirituality. When I walk and am
present in nature, I feel God. When I hear or sing a particularly beautiful song, I feel the Spirit. When I
have a touching moment with a friend, I know Christ is present. Not being able to regularly engage in
spiritual practices doesn’t make me a bad person of faith, but I also know that going deeper in my faith
would give me some of the groundedness and peace that I seek.
In the letter that Rachel read for us today, we read that religion is a great benefit, but only for
those who don’t focus on worldly concerns. Those who have what they need -food, clothing, shelter -
are able to reap these benefits. Religion, or, I might say, our faith, only works though if we are content
with what we have and not yearn for that which can lead us into a trap. Love of money is stated as the
root of all evil. Not money itself. The love of money. The love of power. The love of attention. We
need money to get what we need, we all have forms of power, and we all need some attention, but when
it becomes our main focus, our main goal in life, we are told, that we “come to grief amid great pain.”
(6:10)
After we have our basic needs met, religion, or our faith and our spiritual practices, brings great
benefit. We read, “As one dedicated to God, strive to be a person of integrity and piety, filled with faith
and love, patience and gentleness.” (6:11). Combine this with what we heard earlier around spiritual
practices increasing compassion and empathy, and I wonder what kind of world we might have if more
of us strived to go deep more regularly.
https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/why-spirituality-important#:~:text=Many spiritual traditions 1
have a,as improve concentration and attention. Louise Delagran, MA, MEd
3 of 4
As a faith community, many of us come regularly to worship, which is a spiritual practice. We
pray together. We sing together. Sometimes we eat together, whether through communion or potlucks.
We read our faith stories together, and hopefully, we grapple with who we are as Christians and how we
live out our faith in the world.
We pray before we have a Board meeting. The ministers are often asked to pray at bedsides or
with people who come to us with struggles. During our discerning process of determining our future
and visioning our way forward, we have prayed, we have invited the Spirit into our conversations, and
hopefully, we have created space for the Holy to offer us wisdom and guide us.
Now, I could go on and on about the benefits of spiritual practices and encourage us all to work
harder at them and to make them more of a regular part of our lives, but, I know from experience that no
matter how many times I’m told these things, it doesn’t automatically cause me to start a regular
practice. So, I’m going to stop talking. I’m going to invite us into a time of silence. Maybe the Spirit
will prod you. Maybe you’ll hear an unexpected call. Maybe you’ll go through your to-do list or
remember how much you hate sitting in silence. You’ll get no judgement from me as to where your
mind goes in this time of silence. My encouragement is to recognize the thought that has intruded,
invite it to bother you later, and try again to listen for the Spirit. I heard somewhere that you might have
to correct your distracted brain ten thousand times but that’s ten thousand opportunities you get to listen
to the sacred.
I’m going to set my timer for two whole minutes. We’re just going to sit in silence and seek
some of those opportunities.
(Silence)
Go deep. It’s challenging but it’s also rewarding. Maybe we could pray for each other as we
strive to listen for the Holy within and around us. May it be so. Amen.