"As I grew older, I realized—deep down in my spirit, where truth blossoms—that my heart longed for something more. All the faith-driven activity of my youth didn’t give me much space to question, to contemplate, or to excavate beneath the established foundation in search of nuance and deeper meaning. This was true of both faith and self. No one spoke of self-discovery—only of self-abnegation, in which personal desires and doubts, considered secondary to the omnipotent will of God, were often regarded as sinful rather than as spiritually insightful.  Without knowing it, I had been denying a part of myself in my spiritual journey: my natural introversion. It’s not that the spiritual nourishment offered by my youth group and my childhood church wasn’t authentic. It’s just the way in which I participated in it as an introvert wasn’t authentic to me. What was missing all those years was an invitation to the interior journey."

-- Lacy Ellman