Paying Attention to Intuition

Luke’s Step One shows us how he worked hard to swim with the tide for all those years, yet it proved more and more difficult as the years passed. On her journey leaving church, Barbara Brown Taylor describes this same gnawing, persistent intuition that kept raising its voice within her, demanding some attention. 

Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

“Intuition may be one way of speaking about how God does that - takes things from here to there, I mean. Since intuition operates lower down than the frontal lobe, it is not easy to talk about how it works. In general, I tend not to pay much attention to it until I have completed all of my research, compiled my lists of pros and cons, and made a rational decision based on facts. Then, when I cannot sleep because the rational decision seems all wrong to me, I start paying attention to the gyroscope of my intuition, which operates below the radar of my reason. I pay attention to recurring dreams and interesting coincidences. I let my feelings off the leash and follow them around. When something moves in my peripheral vision, I leave the path to investigate, since it would be a shame to walk right by a burning bush. At this point, reason is all but useless to me. All that remains is trust. Will I trust my intuition or won’t I? The more I do, the more intuitive I become. This is as close as I can come to describing the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”