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Be Still (Rule of Life, Part 2)
By Jeremy | February 8, 2008
A "Rule of Life" is a set of conscious guidelines to help us keep God at the center of everything we do. It is our unique combination of spiritual practices that provide a structure and direction for our growth in Christ. A "Rule of Life" is a pattern of daily actions we choose to help us to intentionally pay attention and remember God in everything we do. Your personal "Rule of Life" is a constantly changing document, a "live" work in progress always. Give yourself lots of time for the slow development of what works best for you. As you examine your life, you may notice many areas that need work. The best approach is to start with only one or two elements for the first few months. Then, after you experience some success with those (you will soon notice that each element in itself is bottomless), you will want to add another building block to your "RuleÂ." Or you may want to stay with the same element to work on over a long period of time. Don't be hard on yourself. St. Benedict writes at the beginning of his Rule:He then did something new for the Prayer Summit (at least since I began attending in 2002). He instructed the pastors to take 60 uninterrupted minutes alone with God. No cell phones, no email, no hallway chatter, no texting, no networking, no book browsing. Just alone time with Jesus. Silence. Stillness. Bible reading, prayer and journaling were ok. Worship music? Not ideal, but acceptable. He described the assignment as tougher for pastors than crack withdrawal. And I could relate. At first I went to my room, and knelt beside the bed to pray. Bad idea. Fatigue from insufficient sleep the night before overwhelmed me. Fortunately my roommate Peter came by and woke me up. So I went for a walk along the banks of the Delaware River. Sat on a park bench and meditated. In silence. To be continued. ...Therefore we intend to establish a school for the Lord's service: Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God's commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love (RB 45, 48-9).
Topics: copgny, devotional, pastors prayer summit, peter scazerro, rule of life, solitude | 1 Comment »
February 9th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Great Stuff. I’m looking into getting Sonship for my wife and myself. I’m with you on that tougher than kicking crack. It is tough! One rule of life that I had to put in place recently was more of Material than spiritual rule….Before I’m off to buying that new shirt, jeans, or shoes, I have forced myself to look at my closet. Its very easy to bag up the extras and “never use that” and drop if off at the MensHome, or Salvation Army. This was something that hit me the last time I went through my wardrobe.