"Faith is what you do between the last time you experienced God and the next time you experience God." -- Renita J. Weems, writer, minister, and professor of Old Testament studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

I've been looking at the story of Jacob this week and realizing how that first powerful encounter with God at Bethel really didn't do much to change Jacob. He acknowledges a holy encounter and even marks the spot with a stone, but he continues a life a self-service and trickery. It's not until the man/angel/God wrestles with him all night and physically injures him that he is changed.

Most of us don't get those vivid, in-your-face, up-close-and-personal kind of experiences with God. We experience God in worship, in nature, through helping others, through allowing ourselves to be helped. But I really like the idea of faith being what you do in between those experiences. That our faith is about how we live in light of our experience and encounters with God.

I wonder if anyone will ever figure out a formula for God-encounters and spiritual growth. You know, like the average person has to quit smoking seven times before they quit for good. Does the average person need at least seven experiences with God before they move to the next level in their spiritual growth? Who are the people who grow faster, and who are the ones who, despite encounter after encounter, simply stay where they are? And how many of us are like Jacob and have to be injured before we can move on to a better place?

Here's hoping we all have an encounter with the Holy today that will sustain us and feed us until the next one.