I'm learning to stop asking God "how do I get back to where I was?" and learning to start asking, "how do I get to the new thing You're calling me into?"

Spiritual life is a series of dips and dives - long dry seasons and explosive seasons of harvest.

I used to try old spiritual practices of last harvest season to jumpstart growth. "If only I could get back there!"

But God's moving us to new growth, not backwards to what's old.

Some old practices stay forever, and the allure of novelty is also a kind of trap.

But be careful of trying to get everything lined up "the way it was when I was close to God" - you're a different self than you were then. There are new ways that God will meet this new you.