Into Ordinary Time
Becoming grounded in this wide, open space
Hello friends!
I’ve heard from several of you this week how these offerings have been for you both an opportunity to draw nearer to God and sometimes a reminder of how challenging that can be. Even if you read no further here today, I hope you will hear these sturdy words of delight spoken over the ones God has called into love:
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
We have entered here into the season after Pentecost, also known as Ordinary Time. Here, “ordinary” alludes not to the usual and commonplace, but to the ordinal marking of time. In this season, we join the psalmist in praying that the Spirit would teach us to number our days, that we might gain a heart of wisdom (Ps 90). We are sent out in the power of the Spirit to join in the continuation of “all that Jesus began to do and to teach” in his earthly ministry (Acts 1:1), living out the invitation from Christ to abide in Love.
The past few weeks have been chock full of big theological events and realities. We’ve been swimming in deep waters. As we move into Ordinary Time this week, we pull back ever so slightly to get very practical. This offering is no less reflective, but focuses on a few ways for us to become more present to our lives and God’s movement in them. Some parts are a little wordier than usual, so please bear with me.
Next week, we will start an Ordinary Time series on the fruits of the Spirit. More on that to come.
Breathe
Here is a practice to help you connect with God right now, wherever you are, with just a few minutes.
When I moved to Singapore last year, it was surprisingly difficult for me to feel like I was actually here. My heart and mind were still so caught up in people and places back home. It took time for my interior space to catch up with my body. My friend Lisa recommended I try this practice. It’s commonly used for calming anxious bodies and minds, but I found it quite helpful in my attempt to become more fully all here. It can help us gather ourselves – body, mind, and spirit – into the present moment, which is precisely the place where God dwells with us.
Find a place where you can be still, either seated or standing. It’s okay if you cannot draw away into solitude, as this practice is a great one for creating attentiveness in any setting. Take a few deep breaths to help your body slow down, then…
Slowly look around and find five things you can see. Let your gaze linger on each one, noticing the details — shape, texture, light, movement.
Next, close your eyes and listen for four things you can hear. One or two are probably immediately obvious. Listen in a little more closely to find a couple more.
Now, notice three things you can feel. They might be touching your skin, blowing your hair, or even moving inside of you. You’ll probably find that as soon as you tune in, many touches will grab your attention. Let yourself focus on these three.
Take another deep breath. What do you smell? Find two things that are engaging your olfactory senses.
Lastly, find one thing you can taste. Let this final simple noticing bring more fully into a posture of attentive presence.
You might want to simply enjoy being here with a greater sense of attentiveness to the very moment in which God has placed you. If so, feel free to spend a couple of minutes in silence in God’s presence. Or you might notice a thought or prayer rising up within you. If so, offer that to God now.
Close with a few more deep breaths.
Behold
When you have 10-20 minutes (or more!) to spare, come here to go a little deeper.
You may be familiar with the practice of rule of life. It is a “simple statement of the regular rhythms we choose in order to partner with God for the transformation only he can bring…a scaffold of disciplines that support your heart’s desire to grow in loving God and others.”1 There are bountiful and rich resources for you to craft a rule of life that looks at the whole of your life in a way that can guide you through changing seasons and circumstances. It is big picture work that invites you to consider the warp and woof of God’s unique, creative endeavor in you. It is a good thing to do, but it’s not the thing we’re doing now.
Our project takes on a much smaller scope, but goes no less deep. We are concerned with seasonality, learning to listen to our lives in their particular context and respond with intentionality that brings freedom.
Very simply, this exercise is designed to help you partner with God in your current season. It offers you the opportunity to decide what you’re saying yes to so that you can freely say “no, thank you” to everything else.
This whole exercise is meant to be done in conversation with God, listening for the guiding of the Spirit and discerning wisdom. The last two sections in particular require honest dialogue with God. Take your time. God desires to draw you nearer and shepherd you even in this process.
First, define your season.
Identify a 6-12ish week period which has some natural beginning and ending points. You might simply follow the environmental seasons where you live or the academic or liturgical calendars. You know best your year’s shape and how you inhabit it. Zoom out and note the shifts. When do your responsibilities change? When does your context cue different ways for you? What external rhythms will mean a new season?
Perhaps you’re in flux and don’t know all of these answers. This is totally fine. Just collect the information you have now. We aren’t trying to make a seasonal rule of life for every season of your year – just the one you’re in today.
Next, consider your constraints.
It may seem like a bit of a bummer to talk about what we cannot do before we focus on what we can do. But if we first lay down the boundaries, then we know the space we are inhabiting. If we know we’re in a season when there will be more late nights or fewer opportunities to revel in the out-of-doors or extra limitations on our resources, we can set our sights on reality.
What are the limits this season will bring? What are its boundary lines?
Then, ask what matters.
Last week, we cracked open this question ever so slightly by asking, Where are you experiencing the Trinity in your life right now? How are you longing for more of life in the Trinity?
We might also ask: What are you longing for in your relationship with God? Where are the signs that God is at work?
These questions probe into the good desires that the Spirit is cultivating in us.
We want to narrow down 1-2 priorities that matter most in your spiritual formation in this season. This could be something that brings you joy and rest. It could be a project, a relationship, a need, a wound, a responsibility or a facet of your spirituality. Attending to too many things in our interior lives crowds out the spacious, rich life God invites us to live. Embrace the simplicity of choosing less so you can let God take you deeper.
Here, we might borrow from The Lazy Genius (You can check out her full exploration of Naming What Matters). Ask three key questions in sequence specifically about your spiritual life:
What could matter?
What does matter?
What matters most?
It might feel a little unnerving to say “yes” to this and not that. But when we are choosing to go where the Spirit is breathing life, we can trust it will be good. Know that you can always make a change. Start somewhere and see how it goes.
Finally, choose a wise, spacious path.
Once you hone in on what matters, you can begin to discern where and how this intention will live in your daily life. Most of life’s obligations are fixed, but there is often some margin we take for granted. Consider the habits and routines you do on autopilot without thinking. We believe they are good always when in fact they may be best in some cases and merely fine in others.
Consider the priorities you’ve set. Where do they live in your daily rhythms? How might you attend to the places where God invites you to go deeper?
Pick a couple of practices that will serve as entry points for this space with you and God. They can be quite simple. You might choose to incorporate a simple practice into your day or adopt a breath prayer to guide you through the thorny places. You might want to commit to a particular spiritual discipline or engage prayer or scripture in a creative new way.
Start small and don’t overcomplicate it. There may be discomfort, but if it feels like a burden, it probably is. Whatever you choose, the goal is for these to feel like wide, open, spacious places where your soul can find God.
Find a place to share your seasonal rule of life where others can support and bear witness to it with you. You might share it with a friend or spiritual director. I would love it if you would post it in the comments on this offering!
Blessing
As this week is already quite focused on the practical, we will not have additional practices to explore. Hopefully you’re already thinking of some you want to pursue through your seasonal rule of life. We’d love to hear these in the comments.
I leave you with this blessing from Romans 5:1-2 in The Message. It is my prayer that as you open your doors to God, you will find the deep, abundant goodness waiting just for you:
By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us, Adele Calhoun, IVP, Rev. 2015, p.38