Started your new bible reading plan yet?
Every January a slew of resolutions get made around reading the Bible. We decide to read the whole Bible in 365 days or we determine that to follow the Christian calendar with a lectionary is the best way to go- because THAT (or Jesus Calling or Oswald Chambers or Streams in the Desert or whatever our favorite go-to devotional text might be) is surely what will spark our spiritual flame that- may have- if we’re honest- flickered down to it’s embers by December 31st.
This year we’d like to suggest that you don’t read the Bible.
Instead we’d like to encourage you to live the scriptures by integrating them into who you are at your deepest level. It’s one thing to get your daily reading in. It’s a whole other galaxy to allow them to transform who you truly are and what you do.
Our prayer for each other and for you is that we’ll take whatever we read far deeper than mere intellectual understanding through one or more of these rhythms or spiritual habits:
- Contemplative practice: Contemplation is a “laboratory” in which you learn to die and to be reborn. The rest of your life becomes the field in which you live out this way of surrender and participation in Love. Commit to a daily practice of some kind of silent meditation. Start with 10 mins. Nothing else we have ever done has had such a profound effect on our being. Our favorite easy to follow primer on this is by Ruth Haley Barton, Invitation to Silence & Solitude.
- Sabbath: Set aside regular, longer periods of quiet or retreat, simply to rest in awareness of God’s presence. Find a rhythm of rest and work that allows for renewal so that you enter your active life from real contemplative grounding.
- Service: Allow the natural welling-up of love to flow outward in acts of justice, healing, and compassion. Life is not about you; you are about life!
- Shadow work: The task of searching out and embracing shadow–the parts of yourself that you hide or ignore–is ongoing, the work of a lifetime. Let the people and circumstances that “push your buttons” be your teachers. Look for yourself with a loving gaze in the mirror of both your enemies and those who enthrall you.
- Spiritual direction: If you do not have someone to guide you, to hold onto you during the times of not knowing, you will normally stay at your present level of growth. Seek out a sacred companion you can trust to be honest and present to your journey, who can reflect back to you God’s presence in your life and the world.
In the future we’ll encourage you with more suggestions for living a true spiritual life instead of just thinking about it or reading about it. This is something we never achieve on our own, but it’s always a gift awaiting our awareness and receptivity.
In 2015, may you grow in your awareness of God’s presence everywhere and always… and may you mirror it back to everyone whose life you intersect.
We’d love to hear about a practice or habit that helps you let The Word become flesh in your life…
(* Bullets are excerpts from Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation Dec 29)
(Image from Sacredsandwich.com)