Welcoming God
Hey spiritual seeker! My name’s Sarah Haykel and I’m the host of Welcoming God, a podcast for spiritual seekers.
In this podcast, I’ll be sharing the goodness of Welcoming God back into my life after years of rebelling against the God of my Catholic upbringing and years of honest seeking on a personal spiritual path. I’ll share my consistently evolving understanding of God and what I’m learning on the path, to help create a God accessible to the every day person.
We’ll have honest and sometimes hilarious conversations about how to go from being a “spiritual” person to a God-loving person. Understanding God as a benevolent guide. What does it mean to have a relationship with God? What does it mean to surrender to God? Cultivating a spiritually mature understanding of God. Learning how to discern God’s truth and will for our lives. How to cultivate the most important relationship you’ll ever have, with God, on a daily, moment to moment basis.
Come along on this spiritually rEvolutionary journey where we get to know God.
This podcast is marked as explicit because there may be swearing or content appropriate for mature audiences in some of the episodes.
Welcoming God
Sitting With God: A Simple Meditation Practice
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Have you ever wondered if spiritual connection could be simpler than we make it? What if the most profound practice required nothing more than your willingness to be present?
Sitting With God is a simple practice that offers restoration and joy without elaborate steps or rigid structures. Unlike many spiritual disciplines that demand specific techniques, this approach simply invites you to pause and acknowledge the divine presence that's already here, right here in this moment with you. Whether for a moment between meetings or during a quiet afternoon, this practice creates space for genuine connection with what I call "The One True Source."
I began this practice years ago when a spiritual coach encouraged me to spend daily time with God. Those late afternoon sessions felt like a simple gift to give myself after the workday – restorative moments of pure presence filled with joy. Now, after a year of practicing centering prayer, I've returned to Sitting With God for its beautiful simplicity and profound nourishment.
The practice is remarkably accessible: just stop whatever you're doing and give yourself the grace of time to be with God. There are no rules. Sometimes I even doze off, but mostly I remain in a relaxed state, simply enjoying divine presence. Before automatically reaching for the TV remote or comfort food at day's end, consider whether something deeper is calling you to this sacred pause instead.
Ready for a gentle challenge? Try Sitting With God daily for the next seven days, even if just for a moment. How will you remind yourself? Perhaps set an alarm, leave notes where you'll see them, or establish a specific time for this divine appointment. However you approach it, I'd love to hear how this practice unfolds for you.
Visit WelcomingGod.com to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free ebook that accompanies the first season of this podcast. Have questions? Reach out through the Get In Touch section on the website. Your journey of simply sitting with God might be the spiritual practice you've been seeking all along.
Music by Song Channel Music. Listen at SongChannelMusic.com
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Gerald G. May MD, The Awakened Heart: Living Beyond Addiction.
Tempo: 120.0
Speaker 1Hey everyone, sarah here, just to let you know. Sometimes I do use swear words in these episodes and we may at times discuss adult content, in case you happen to be listening around, little ones or people that won't appreciate that. Thanks so much for listening and let's get right into it. Hi, and thanks for joining me on Welcoming God. Hey everybody, sarah Haeckel here, on today's episode of Welcoming God, I am inviting you into a practice that I call Sitting With God, and it's a very simple form of what they would refer to in centering prayer consenting to being within the presence of the one true source. Well, those are my words the one true source. They don't say that in centering prayer, but those are my words. So actively choosing to be with God in the moment. That is what sitting with God is all about, and it is so simple. It is literally just setting aside some time or getting inspired in a moment throughout your day and you just say to yourself yeah, you know what. I'm going to take a few moments or a few minutes here to sit with God and you just stop everything else and give yourself the grace of however much time you feel good about or you have available to you or you feel comfortable with, to literally just be with God.
Speaker 1I started this practice, I think, inspired by a spiritual coach that I was working with several years ago. He was encouraging me to spend time with God daily, and I found the late afternoons after I finished work was a great time and it just felt very restorative. It felt like such a great, soothing, comforting gift, like a warm hug to myself at the end of the workday and I would just sit on the couch, or even lay down sometimes, and just allow myself to be with God. There were no rules, nothing. Sometimes I would even doze off a little bit, but most of the time I would be in this very relaxed state and just enjoy being with God, and that's the word joy that I felt when I was doing this several years ago back in 2021, I believe.
Speaker 1I've recently started to practice this again, because I've been practicing centering prayer since last June maybe, so it's been just over a year of doing that steadily, pretty much, but I've come back to this sitting with God because it feels so restorative. It's very simple. You don't have to remember to do anything specific. All you're doing is giving yourself the grace of time to be present with the presence, the presence of life, the presence of it all and enjoy being within this presence and with this presence and being the presence, the presence through you of life. It is a beautiful process and it's so simple. All it requires is your willingness to heed that call. When you get that inspiration to sit with God. Oh, I'm going to sit with God right now, you know, and I was just reading a book by Gerald May called the Awakened Heart Beautiful book.
Speaker 1I would highly recommend it. And he talked about, you know, be aware, when you feel like turning on the TV or you want to reach for that comfort thing, that thing that you just want to do at the end of the day, is it really time for that or is there something else calling you, like you could take a moment to sit with God, could take a moment to sit with God. It doesn't have to be 10 or 20 minutes, but maybe you just take a moment to sit before you click the power button for your TV, you know, or before you reach for that comfort food, take a moment to just be with God and see what happens there and enjoy being with God. So that really is the whole point. For me is the joy of this practice because it's not a step-by-step process or anything that has any particular rules or regulations. It really is just about your intention, your willingness, your interest, your prompting and your saying yes to that prompting of sitting with God. So I'm excited for you to try this path, in this process, and I ask you, what would it be like to do this every day for the next seven days, at least for a moment every day?
Speaker 1And will you do it at the same time of the day? Will you let it be spontaneous when you feel inspired to do it? That's up to you and you can sit with God Again. It could just be a moment. It could be in between meetings, it could be on your couch at home, it could be on a walk. When will you take a moment to be with God consciously, to remember God's presence, to remember that you are a part of this one true source? And this one true source is right here, right now. You couldn't get any closer to it. It's everything. So how will you take this time to give yourself the gift, to also give God the gift of remembering this presence, sitting with it, being with it and enjoying being with God? And how will you remind yourself of this practice for the next seven days? Do you have to set a reminder in your phone, daily reminder, set an alarm that goes off at a particular time of the day every day for the next seven days? How will you remind yourself? Write a note, put it somewhere that you'll see it every day when you get up or before you go to bed, etc. So I look forward to seeing how this practice goes for you and if you'd like to share with me or if you have any questions, you can just email me by going to welcominggodcom, scroll to the bottom of the page to the Get In Touch section, and send me an email from there. Also, I want to invite you to sign up for the Welcoming God newsletter. I just released an ebook that goes along with the first season of the Welcoming God podcast, so you'll receive that ebook when you sign up for the email newsletter and you can do that all at welcominggodcom. Thank you so much for joining me here today. Enjoy sitting with God this week and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
Speaker 1Hey everyone, sarah Haeckel here from Welcoming God, a podcast for spiritual seekers. This is a legal disclaimer to say that this podcast is not a substitute for therapy or professional help. I am not a trained therapist. I also have not studied theology in a formal setting. This podcast is purely for educational, inspirational purposes, to share the goodness of welcoming God back into my life and all of the things that I'm learning on this journey. So thank you for joining me here. Episode of Welcoming God. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen and consider leaving us a review, as it helps more people find and benefit from this show. Music by Song Channel Music. You can listen and hear more at songchannelmusiccom. Until we meet again, aloha nui loa, take care and God bless, thank you.