Spiritual Discipline: An Offering of Time and Space for the Soul
Discipline of any sort, is always an expression of something greater than the discipline itself. Financial disciplines represent greater priorities and goals I set for myself. Physical disciplines express a desire for health through the activity I put into it. And spiritual discipline expresses my willingness and desire to be in relationship with God. And this calls for some intention and expression of that desire in how we order our hours, our days, our lives.
Viewing spiritual discipline as a specific method or program to knowing God misses the point. That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t just jump into a practice of prayer or meditation or devotional reading. All of these attempts to connect to the Divine express the desire to do so, and this in itself delights God. But what if we viewed spiritual discipline not in terms of how well we practice a discipline, or how successful we feel in it, but rather as an offering of time, and space, and yielding of the heart, mind, body and spirit to Divine Love?
This offering is not a way to earn God’s attention, but rather a portal into the soul that acknowledges God and recognizes the need and desire to be led by a Love that I cannot create on my own. It trains my soul to recognize the voice of God, to consider all of life in relationship to God, and to release those things and influences that may hinder this connection.
Each of us find our best time and the best place to offer ourselves to this Divine work. Wherever and how ever we are, we come, day by day, week by week, months turn to years and years to decades of continually and intentionally turning the heart towards God. Sometimes we hear or sense the sacred sounds of the soul, other days we simply recognizing the longing in the silence that may feel like a void or a hunger.
How do you describe your own spiritual disciplines? How do those disciplines affect your ordinary life? What does the greater longing or hunger for more of the Divine life within you feel like, look like, sound like?
