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My Spiritual Geography - Sandy
Sermon Summary
Sandy invites us to embrace the journey of life as a spiritual geography. From the garden in Genesis to the garden city in Revelation. Recognising that wherever we are, God is present, life’s path is not linear, and we are called to travel well together, carrying light burdens and finding God’s beauty even in the messy and difficult places.
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The journey from garden to garden city opens with beauty, tulips, pot plants on a Hong Kong minibus, and the deep human need for creation even in crowded places. The “geography of my soul” becomes a picture for the internal landscape of the human spirit. That landscape has pretty little flowers, but also weeds, dog poo, compost, trees, streams, raging waterfalls, dark caves, dry deserts, still clouds, dead branches, and a little corner tended by a skilled gardener.
God is present in every one of those places. The messy places, the pit, the high mountains, the low valleys, the swamps, and the dry places are not places where God disappears. Life is a journey, but not a Google map from A to B. The Christian life is not simply height to height, better to better. It goes forward, backwards, and around again, with old issues surfacing and deeper invitations coming from God.
Living well happens best in company. Sacred places matter, and private places of prayer matter, but the journey still needs fellow travellers. The map of the soul helps name where a person is: a river of healing, a bay of frustration, grief lands, faith mountain, or mountains of difficulty. The naming matters because emotions need language, and pictures sometimes speak where words are too thin.
Jesus’ own story carries every geography. Jesus comes from heaven to a stable, goes into the desert led by the Spirit, sleeps in the storm, faces agony in a garden, and stands in hostile places at peace. Jesus has an emotional journey, yet always finds his Father in that place. That becomes the open invitation.
The Bible’s garden story begins in Eden, beautiful and harmonious, then moves through expulsion, wandering, Cain’s walled city, corruption, music, agriculture, and the persistent human longing for beauty. Cities are not simply evil. Abraham looks for the city whose architect and builder is God. Jeremiah tells exiles in Babylon to build houses, plant gardens, seek the welfare of the city, and pray for it.
Revelation brings the journey to the garden city. God comes down to live with mortals. No temple is needed, because God and the Lamb are its temple. No sun is needed, because Jesus is its light. Clean water, the tree of life, healing leaves, worship, harmony, and the face of God complete the picture.
Meanwhile, detours come, some unwanted and painful, but God is there. The best way to travel is lightly, with others, drinking living water, pausing often, and trusting the God who is beyond, beneath, beside, and within.
Key Takeaways
1. God is in every landscape:
God is not only found in the neat corner of the garden where the weeds have been pulled. God is also present in the swampy places, the dark cave, the dog poo, the compost, and the pit from which redemption is needed. Sacredness does not depend on the landscape being tidy, because divine presence meets the soul where it actually is.
2. The journey is not straight:
Life with God does not work like a Google map from A to B. Growth can circle back through old grief, old fear, and old questions, not because forgiveness failed, but because God may be touching something deeper. A returning struggle can become a place to name, identify, and find God again.
3. Exile still calls for planting:
Jeremiah’s word to Babylon does not allow exile to become passive waiting. God tells displaced people to build houses, plant gardens, eat what grows, multiply there, and seek the welfare of the city. The not-yet life still has soil to tend, neighbours to bless, and places to pray for.
4. Travel lightly with fellow travellers:
The journey is best taken with others, but it is not helped by dragging every resentment and sorrow like heavy luggage. Isaiah’s picture is not people carrying their god, but God carrying his people. Forgiveness, living water, rest, and spiritual fuel make the road lighter without pretending the road is easy.
5. The garden city is coming:
Revelation’s city is also a bride, a garden, and a home where God lives among mortals. The tree of life, clean water, open gates, healed nations, and the face of God give shape to the destination. The future promise does not erase the present journey, but it tells the traveller what kind of home is already being prepared.
Daily Hope Devotionals
Day 1: Weeds and Tulips in the Soil of the Soul
Scripture:
Psalm 139:1–3 (NIV)
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20139%3A1-3&version=NIV
Devotional:
The human spirit holds contradictions—vibrant tulips and stubborn weeds, quiet streams and raging waterfalls. Just as a garden’s beauty coexists with messiness, our inner landscapes mix joy and struggle, growth and decay. God does not wait for us to tidy our souls before drawing near. He walks the overgrown paths, sits in the compost, and tends what we cannot fix alone. To recognise His presence in every terrain is to embrace the sacredness of our unfinished story.
Reflection:
Where in your inner landscape do you feel most hesitant to invite God’s presence?
How might His nearness transform what you see as messy or unworthy?
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I am so grateful You know everything about me. Please help me to know Your nearness and transform struggles into joy, decay into growth. Amen.
Day 2: Pot Plants on a Hong Kong Minibus
Scripture:
Jeremiah 29:5–7 (NIV)
“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2029%3A5%E2%80%937&version=NIV
Beauty persists in unexpected places—a driver’s potted garden on a Minibus in crowded Hong Kong, tulip fields glimpsed from a plane, a silent retreat on a windswept beach. These glimpses remind us that holiness thrives where we least expect it. To seek God is to train our eyes to spot His fingerprints in concrete jungles, daily routines, and seasons of exile. Cultivating small sanctuaries of grace prepares us to recognise the Garden City awaiting us.
Reflection:
What “mini garden” have you overlooked in your current season?
How could nurturing one small space of beauty alter your perspective when you're in a difficult, unplanned place?
Prayer:
Oh Father, may I look in the unexpected places to see the beauty of creation and in doing so, help me to see the areas of my life that I have overlooked. Help me to create beauty and nurturing within my life. Amen.
Day 3: Holding the Map Without Knowing the Destination
Scripture:
Hebrews 11:8 (NIV)
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2011%3A8&version=NIV
Devotional:
Abraham journeyed toward a promise he would never see, trusting a God who reroutes pilgrims through deserts and detours. Our spiritual geography rarely follows straight lines—faith winds through grief’s swamps, circles back to old battles, and climbs familiar mountains with new strength. The map is not for predicting the path, but for remembering we walk with the Mapmaker who has walked and will guide us through all the terrain and its weather ahead.
Reflection:
Where has your journey taken you that your younger self never imagined?
How does trusting the Mapmaker free you from demanding certainty?
Prayer:
Dear Lord, thank You for the journey You have taken me on, whether big or small. Help me to continually surrender to You and be as obedient as Abraham in trusting You to navigate through the storms of life and be willing to change direction when needed. Amen.
Day 4: Hand Luggage for the Pilgrim Soul
Scripture:
Isaiah 46:3–4 (NIV)
“Listen to me, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born. Even to your old age and grey hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2046%3A3%E2%80%934&version=NIV
Devotional:
We were not made to haul yesterday’s regrets like overstuffed suitcases. Isaiah’s God carries His people. To travel light is to release what cannot be fixed enroute—bitterness, perfectionism, the myth of control. Forgiveness becomes the daily practice of unpacking burdens onto the shoulders of the One who walks ahead, behind, and beneath the rocky trails.
Reflection:
What weight have you been carrying that God never asked you to hold?
What would it look like to hand Him one item from your emotional baggage today?
Prayer:
Oh Lord, there are things in my life that I have been stuffing into a suitcase and carrying around daily. Father, I know You don’t want me to live like this. It’s time to open the suitcase and choose an item to let go by placing it at Your feet. I am trusting You to help me to hand it over and not take it back. Amen.
Day 5: Tiptoeing Toward the Garden City
Scripture:
Revelation 22:1–2 (NIV)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2022%3A1%E2%80%932&version=NIV
Devotional:
Creation groans, standing on tiptoe for redemption’s dawn. The Garden City’s gates swing wide—no more night, no more thorns, no more exile. Yet here, now, in the “not yet,” we plant tulips in traffic jams and light candles in caves. Every act of hope—prayers for the city, shared grief, defiant joy—becomes a seed of the coming Kingdom. The journey home begins by rooting ourselves in the God who is already here.
Reflection:
What makes your heart “stand on tiptoe” with longing for God’s restoration?
How can you partner with Him today to cultivate a foretaste of the Garden City?
Prayer:
Lord, I await Your return. The word from Revelation brings me hope and joy, bringing restoration to all people. Help me to partner with You to cultivate a foretaste of the Garden City in our lives now. Amen.
Day 6: Where You Are, God Is
Scripture:
Matthew 28:20b (NIV)
... And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2028%3A20&version=NIV
Devotional:
Sometimes life feels like exile—away from the places we long for or the comfort we once knew. But God’s invitation is clear: wherever you find yourself, build your life there. Plant gardens of hope and care. Invest in your community. God is present in every place, even the hard or unfamiliar ones. This means you don’t have to wait for the “perfect” moment or place to experience God’s blessing.
Reflection:
How can you live well right now, wherever you are, by trusting that God is with you in every season of life?
What does the phrase “Where you are, God is” mean to you when you are facing valleys, dry places, or challenging circumstances?
Prayer:
Lord, help me to see Your presence in my current place. Teach me to build, plant, and seek the good of where I am. May I find peace and purpose in Your presence today. Amen.
Day 7: Travel Lightly on the Journey
Scripture:
Luke 22:35 (NIV)
Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2022%3A35&version=NIV
Devotional:
Life’s journey is full of detours, challenges, and emotional baggage. God invites us to travel lightly, letting go of bitterness, resentment, and sorrow that weigh us down. We don’t have to carry these burdens alone because God carries us. This frees us to move forward with faith and hope, forgiving often and being forgiven.
Reflection:
What are some things you may be carrying in life that are not truly necessary for your journey with God?
How can focusing on God’s love, grace, and the support of others help sustain you through life's journey?
Prayer:
God, thank You for carrying me when I am weak. Help me to release the heavy burdens I carry and to forgive as You forgive me. Teach me to travel lightly and to trust You every step of the way. Amen.
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Your Questions Answered
The sermon answers these questions:
1. What is the “geography of my soul”?
It is a picture of the inner landscape of a person—the mountains, valleys, streams, deserts, storms, gardens, dry places, and hidden places within us. It helps us describe what is happening in our spirit and emotions.
2. Where is God when life is messy or difficult?
God is present wherever we are—in the pit, the valley, the storm, the desert, and on the mountain. We can experience the beauty and presence of God in every place.
3. Is the Christian life a straight journey from one good place to another?
No. Life is not a straight line from “A” to “B.” It moves backwards and forwards, and we sometimes return to places we thought we had already dealt with. In those places, we are invited to find God again and listen for what He is saying.
4. How should we live the journey?
Living well is best done in company. We need other people, even when we also need time alone. We are fellow travelers who encourage and bless one another.
5. Why should we name our emotions and inner places?
Because our language can be too limited. Naming our emotions and using pictures such as mountains, deserts, valleys, and streams can help us explore and understand what is happening within us.
6. Where can we meet with God in a special way?
We can find a private, sacred place where we become still and quiet before God. For the Sandy, it is the beach at Port Sorell, where God comes close and speaks.
7. How can we understand where we are in life?
We can honestly identify our present place—perhaps a river of healing, a bay of frustration, Faith Mountain, Mountains of Difficulty, or Grief Lands. Recognising where we are helps us know where we have been and where we may want to go.
8. Are cities evil?
No. Cities can contain corruption and brokenness, but they also contain beauty, creativity, music, agriculture, and a longing for harmony because people are made in the image of God. The biblical story ends not simply in a garden, but in a garden city.
9. How should we live where God has placed us?
We should build, settle, plant gardens, care for creation, enjoy its fruit, seek the welfare of the city, and pray for the place where we live.
10. What is the hope at the end of the journey?
The journey ends in the garden city—the new creation where God lives among His people. There will be no sorrow, death, or pain. There will be living water, the tree of life, healing, worship, and complete harmony with God.
11. What should we do during the time before that final restoration?
We are to live well, pray, care for creation and our communities, enjoy one another, and enjoy the presence of God. The destination matters, but so does faithful living along the way.
12. How should we respond to life’s detours?
Some detours—such as illness, grief, loss, divorce, accidents, conflict, or failure—are not things we choose or want. We may not always understand why they happen, but we can trust that God is present and continue the journey in his hands.
13. How can we travel lightly?
We should not carry the old baggage of sadness, resentment, bitterness, and sorrow as though it all depends on us. God carries his people. We are encouraged to forgive, receive forgiveness, drink deeply from God, read, meditate, pause, and enjoy the scenery.
14. What should we remember wherever we are?
Wherever we find ourselves, God is there. Life is a journey that is not always linear, and living well is best done with others. We can be at home with Jesus in every place.
Check out the full sermon above for more answers to your questions about Jesus and how to follow Him.
