I spent the last 20 hours either sleeping or battling the stomach flu. Oy! I missed church and small group, grocery shopping, and weekly planning and now I'm starting the week out with a residual headache and a sense of being behind already.
But as I sat on the front porch this balmy morning, sipping coffee and chatting with my husband who is in China, I though about the value of being emptied (sorry for the visual.) Letting go of schedules and duties and commitments is not easy for me, but there is spiritual discipline in both fulfilling and withdrawing from them.
Jesus, in his final hours, both fulfilled and withdrew.
But I'm learning we can develop the art of simultaneous fulfilling and withdrawing. Life can be lived in synchronized work and worship. In my favorite book on the devotional life, A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly writes
"At the first practice of inward prayer is a process of alternation of attention between outer things and the Inner Light. Preoccupation with either brings the loss of the other, yet what is sought is not alternation, but simultaneity, worship undergirding every moment, living prayer, the continuous current and background of all moments of life."
This, I feel, is my highest calling: to "walk and talk and work and laugh with your friends. But behind the scenes, keep up the life of simple prayer and inward worship." -T. Kelly
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