Friday, October 17, 2003
Over the past three months I've watched my personal spiritual rhythms take a beating. The easiest thing for me to point to for my difficulties in consistency is my job at the coffee shop. On days when I open the shop, my alarm starts beeping at 3:40a.m. About seven years ago, just before getting married, I took a new job at a local university. Prior to that I had worked a swing shift job, but the new job required me to be at work at 6:30a.m. I found that the best way for me to have a consistent "quiet time" (that's what I called it back then) with God was to get up at about 4:00a.m. I continued this practice for the most part up until the time I left my staff position with the church this April. These were good times. Despite not being a "morning person" I thrived in the dark and quiet hours before my day began. The routine gave me the place to encounter scripture, meditation, prayer, and spiritual readings that challenged me in my following of Christ. When I took the job at the coffee shop, that routine ended. My schedule is different from one day to the next, one week to the next. Some days I'm at work at 4:30a.m., some days at 9:00a.m. My "real" job as a church starter plays out in part as I meet people at the coffee shop, which I enjoy a lot. But again, my own spiritual life has suffered. It's been very easy for me to become discouraged and blame my work schedule for my difficulty. But having called in sick this morning because of an ugly and uncomfortable eye infection, I sat down for some time with God. I read scripture, prayed, and confessed my frustration to Jesus. Then I picked up a book and read these words by Thomas Merton in Contemplative Prayer: "Those who imagine that they can discover special gimmicks and put them to work for themselves usually ignore God's will and his grace. They are self-confident and even self-complacent. They make up their minds that they are going to attain to this or that, and try to write thier own ticket in the life of contemplation. They may even appear to succeed to some extent . . . " With all the best intentions, and certainly some healthy and God-honoring results, I have come to rely on a "program" in my life. It did work for a time. That time has come to an end, at least for the time being. In its absence I realize that I've become far too reliant on it, and not reliant enough upon the wooing of the Spirit of God to spend time alone in the quiet spaces with him. My routines have been interrupted and my lack of desire for the presence of Jesus in my life has been exposed. I have dreamed that I could manufacture spirituality in my life by getting up at a certain hour of the day and reading, praying, meditating in a certain order, with certain results. My opportunity now is to walk daily, hourly in the presence of Jesus, allowing him to direct me into the moments where I can do the good things of meditation and focused prayer. They may be shorter in length, random in order, but these moments exist all around me if I will ask Jesus to lead me there. I do long for the day when I can once again develop a fairly predictable spiritual routine and rhythm. But when it comes, I want to use it as a gift and a joy, and not as a program. |
spirit farmer data
I'm Steve Lewis. This used to be my blogging home. My online home is now at SpiritFarmer.com. When this blog was my active online home, I lived in Seattle. Now I live in London, UK. I follow Jesus (poorly most of the time), worship simply, read a lot, watch culture, go to school, listen to music, write, enjoy art, and drink a lot of coffee. e-mail me: spiritfarmer@gmail.com xml seattle spots
victrola coffee zoka coffee university of washington church of the apostles quest church sanctuary church shoreline vineyard sites i visit
off the map theooze next-wave metacritic nt wright a few of the blogs in the feedreader
tallskinnykiwi jason evans joe boyd kevin rains alan creech chris marshall bill bean eugene cho jordon cooper dwight friesen john chandler amy palmer ryan bolger rudy carrasco ryan sharp sings in the sunshine rick bennett scot mcknight karen ward alan hirsch dan kimball petey crowder i'm reading it
colossians remixed africa unchained i finished reading it - 2007
generation me jesus and the restoration of israel god's continent glocalization globalizing theology gustavo gutierrez: essential writings jesus and the eyewitnesses garlands of grace twenty poems to nourish your soul the black swan dancing in the streets made to stick signs in contemporary culture hit the bullseye revolution the politics of jesus readings in christian ethics toward old testament ethics the kite runner principles of conduct velvet elvis the irresistable revolution they like jesus, but not the church the great omission ishmael charisma: the gift of grace, and how it has been taken from us the starfish and the spider a perfect mess the world cafe the new faces of christianity leaving church journeying in faith the creed creators transforming mission metaphors we live by foolishness to the greeks personal knowledge states i've spent time: 2007
washington texas british columbia oregon california georgia oh yeah, denmark, too i wrote it
managing conflict in the 'new world' music review: over the rhine film review: bonhoeffer music review: fighting jacks film review: the passion of the christ how reality tv changes lives the best tv article you've ever read corks & caps: a wine lover's story of change america's idols random, disorganized thoughts about life after the katrina disaster missional . . . plain and simple on becoming post-gnostic i blogged it
04/01/2002 - 05/01/2002 05/01/2002 - 06/01/2002 06/01/2002 - 07/01/2002 07/01/2002 - 08/01/2002 08/01/2002 - 09/01/2002 09/01/2002 - 10/01/2002 10/01/2002 - 11/01/2002 11/01/2002 - 12/01/2002 12/01/2002 - 01/01/2003 01/01/2003 - 02/01/2003 02/01/2003 - 03/01/2003 03/01/2003 - 04/01/2003 04/01/2003 - 05/01/2003 05/01/2003 - 06/01/2003 06/01/2003 - 07/01/2003 07/01/2003 - 08/01/2003 08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003 09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003 10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003 12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 misc
flickr wikipedia |
Tweaked from a design by mela
|