Maddie Wild | Personal Formation Plan
One of the key components of the Circle City Fellows experience is the Personal Formation Plan. Each fall, Fellows identify an area of their lives where they sense God is at work or might be calling them to something. It might be an area of conviction or an area ripe for improvement; it might be something that’s going well into which they can learn further.
Over the years, Fellows’ plans have included things like waking up earlier in the morning, keeping more “down time” in their schedule, practicing breath prayer during the workday, embracing vulnerability, and more.
Today, we want to highlight one member of our Class of 2024, Maddie Wild, and her personal formation plan.
“I started the Personal Formation Plan,” Maddie said, “without any real sense of direction. I didn’t have an area that felt specifically lacking or painful.” But all Fellows are encouraged to read Journey Towards Wholeness by Suzanne Stabile, and it was there that Maddie learned something important about her own Enneagram type.
She learned that as a Type Two, she was likely to nearly always be thinking about the needs of others. Maddie said, “Maybe others would see this as obvious, but it was revolutionary to me, that this continual orientation away from self and towards others erodes the sense of self, until you are completely disconnected from yourself.”
Maddie realized that she was exhausted and disconnected from herself.
“So my personal formation plan became about reconnecting to myself, or as one cohort member summed it up, ‘So your personal formation plan is just self-care?’ Yeah, it was!”
Maddie began swimming again–a longtime passion she had somewhat gotten away from–, eating differently and more nourishingly, and prioritizing rest and Sabbath. She began gardening more, cooking different meals, and going on walks. “In these acts,” she said, “I can see the great delight and careful hand of a creator.”
Maddie and her husband, Zach (also a member of CCF's Class of 2024), chat with guests at the CCF 5th Anniversary Celebration.
Maddie shares about her personal formation plan and spiritual growth during CCF's 5th Anniversary Celebration.
One of the things we talk about often in CCF is how God’s ministry of reconciliation entails several dynamics: reconciling humanity to God, humanity to each other, humanity to creation, and humans to themselves. Personal formation plans often touch one of these elements of reconciliation, and in Maddie’s case, it was about being reconciled to herself. In the process, she can begin to receive more of God’s joy, love, and peace.
“I am grateful for this process, because without it I would never be self aware enough to pause, listen, rest, and seek joyful play. This was the first step to helping me lean into the care I needed for myself, because I want to have the ability to extend that care to others.” –Maddie Wild, Class of 2024
