The Trendy Bespoke Examen

 The Examen is a practice of prayer and self-examination recommended by Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. 

A quick Google will show that this has been adapted e.g. for ecology or well-being. 

At one level this is all well and good. These things are likely to be beneficial. And they may prove to be gateway drugs to the real hard stuff: sin, repentance, forgiveness, transformation by the power of the Spirit. 

But there is a danger we never get there. 

We want to proclaim the gospel afresh in every generation. We may, probably should, perhaps must adapt the language we use. 

For example, people today may not say they share Luther's guilty conscience. Perhaps better to speak of inauthenticity. If we do not feel ourselves, necessarily, to be transgressors of the moral law, we may admit that we have a spectacular ability to muck things up for ourselves or others. 

But in the end you have to call sin, sin, even if not in so many words. 

You need not confine yourself to the language of the Bible. You may even sometimes use Bible words in a way the Bible does not, though this risks a muddle. But the Christian must always re-connect with the language and meaning of the Bible, which alone has final authority. 

By all means, reflect on your happiness and your impact on the environment, but Ignatius would like you to trace these things back to their source and to know yourself to be a loved sinner in the presence of a holy God, and to know what to do about it, which is to cling to Christ in repentance and faith. 

Go for the traditional Examen and you will get the other stuff thrown in. Go for the new trendy light version, and you might miss the real thing.