What Are You Disciplined To?

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Pink flowers.

Lately I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the choices we make and the usefulness of commitments and boundaries. Want to think along with me about this for a few minutes?

I’ve shared here before that Kirk and I have begun honoring the seventh day of each week with a day of rest. This has been so helpful to us (when we’re able to keep our commitment to it!), as it helps us slow down and attend to the rejuvenation of our bodies, minds, and spirits. It creates a natural day of connection for us. It keeps us humble and mindful that the world will not stop spinning if we don’t keep pace with it. 

Last week, we began moving toward another new commitment: keeping the hours of 9PM-9AM for quietness and togetherness in our home. 

There was a time in my life where I would have viewed these kind of commitments as rigid.

I would have viewed making and keeping an informal “rule of life” as opposed to the grace of God. I would have felt myself and my needs minimized in favor of rules and rule-keeping. 

But I don’t view it that way anymore. 

Sure, there is a way of making and keeping rules that can be rather rigid. There is a way of conducting our lives according to certain boundaries and expectations that create a sense of confinement instead of grace and freedom. 

But there is also a way of creating a lifestyle of commitment and boundaries that leads to self-care.

The day of sabbath and the 9PM-9AM quiet hours is like that for us.

These commitments also have the effect of clearly establishing our priorities and keeping us mindful of what most matters to us. Also, I’ve noticed these clear boundaries create a measure of freedom for me. They make decision-making easy. When something crops up that would require me to work and toil on a Sunday or in the hours we’ve designated for our home life, I can more easily say no. Those are times I’m no longer available. Decision-making: easy. 

What about you? Do you have certain disciplines you observe in your daily life? Do they create freedom for you? Do they make you feel caged in? Is there a way you might observe certain disciplines in a more helpful, self-caring way in your life?

Where Has God Been Present to You?

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Bunches.

Tonight I attended a healing prayer service at our episcopal parish and was reminded by our rector of the daily examen prayer. 

Have you heard of the daily examen prayer before? 

This is a daily prayer first introduced by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 1500s, who said he considered this daily practice to be the most vital spiritual discipline anyone can incorporate into their daily life. He found the benefits of practicing it too rich to miss for even one day. 

What is the daily examen prayer, you ask? 

It is a time set aside at the end of each day to prayerfully review the day you’ve just finished and consider how God has been present in it.

For example, when I sat and prayerfully reviewed my day today for God’s presence, these are some of the things that emerged in my awareness: 

  • The gift of an extended coffee date with one of my dearest friends
  • A conflict with Kirk that ended in our renewed commitment to each other and our life together
  • A couple kind e-mails
  • The opportunity to meet with my spiritual director
  • The smell of rain
  • The granting of an unusual request I made of someone recently
  • The joy-filled smile of an elderly woman at church tonight
  • A spontaneous opportunity to capture a photograph of some beautiful velvety flowers
  • The way Diva (my little girl kitty) sits with me at my desk while I work

These are large or little graces that communicated God’s presence and care toward me today. 

What kind of things would be on your list today? 

When I began practicing the daily examen a few years ago, I found that it increased my sense of gratitude at least ten-fold. I became aware of God’s goodness and presence in my daily life in ways I never would have realized otherwise. It led to an increased sense of well-being and joy because I grew in my trust that God was present and actively working in the nitty-gritty details and tiny moments of my life.

That God would care and attend to my daily realities as much as I came to realize he does really floored me.

These days, I typically practice a different daily examen prayer of sorts at the end of each day by listening to a podcast called Pray as You Go. I’ve mentioned this podcast here before, but it’s a 10-15 minute daily recording that includes a different Scripture reading each day with personal reflection questions and beautiful sacred music that promotes reflection and reverence. I love it.

Today I encourage you to practice the daily examen by prayerfully considering your day and then asking: where has God been present to you in this day? 

Eight Long Weeks: The Pepsi Fast

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At the outset of the spiritual disciplines class I just completed, our instructor asked us to commit to a bodily discipline for the entirety of the eight-week class. We could choose to practice some form of regular exercise, give up a certain food item, or even practice certain habits of rest — something that would engage our bodies in some specific way for eight weeks.

For my bodily discipline, I chose to conduct an eight-week Pepsi fast. Since Pepsi is the only soda I drink, this basically means that I gave up soda for eight weeks straight.

I chose this fast because it had become increasingly clear in the weeks before starting this class that I had an unhealthy dependence on Pepsi. Every time I went to the grocery store, I would pick up two or three 2-liter bottles of Pepsi, and they would all be gone within 5 days. I would drink Pepsi with meals, and I would drink it with snacks. I would drink it while sitting at my desk working on the computer, which is literally how I spend most of my days. I had become addicted to the taste, as well as to the comfort and familiarity of routine it provided me. So I decided to abstain for eight weeks and see what happened.

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What Does the Fast Reveal?

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This past week, I practiced a partial media fast for my course on the spiritual disciplines. This means that instead of checking my e-mail, blog feedreader, or Facebook account after I woke up each morning, I refrained from accessing the internet until 12:00 noon. 

I have practiced fasting on occasion in the past, usually when I am seeking wisdom about a particular decision. These have been food fasts for a certain period of hours or number of meals. And once, in my senior year of college, I gave up Dr. Pepper for seven months because I could no longer ignore that it was a mindless addiction.

But in each of these instances, I can’t say I used those opportunities to truly be with God.

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The Principle of Indirection

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About a week and a half ago, I began an eight-week Pepsi fast as part of a spiritual disciplines course I’ve been taking at Spring Arbor. I’ll write more about the reasons for the fast and the impact it has on my life once the eight-week practice has finished, but I at least wanted to write a short note today about what I’m discovering about the principle of indirection — namely, that it works!

Richard Foster writes about the principle of indirection in an essay included at the beginning of the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible (which is a great resource, by the way, that I highly recommend). He says:

“We cannot by direct effort make ourselves into the kind of people who can live fully alive to God. Only God can accomplish this in us … We do not, for example, become humble merely by trying to become humble. Action on our own would make us all the more proud of our humility. No, we instead train with Spiritual Disciplines appropriate to our need … By an act of the will we choose to take up disciplines of the spiritual life that we can do. These disciplines are all actions of body, mind, and spirit that are within our power to do … Then the grace of God steps in, takes this simple offering of ourselves, and creates out of it the kind of person who embodies the goodness of God.”

We do what we can do so that God can cultivate in us what we cannot do ourselves. Yes, that is what I’m learning already through the seemingly simple practice of this Pepsi fast.

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