The Rhythm of Life: An Experience of Engaging in Daily Practice

After a hiatus filled with paper-writing and philosophy (so maybe not much of a hiatus), I am winding down and am ready to begin sharing the paper that culminates (and commences) my study of daily practices. I'll share it in five bits since it was written in five bits (plus, 15 pages is just too long of a post, right? Right). So, without further ado...

From my favorite blog.

Prelude

The dictionary defines “practices” in two ways, one being “habit[s] or custom[s],” and the second expanding on those habits and customs toward a goal: “repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency.” Likewise, the dictionary defines “daily” as “every day” or “day by day.” The synonyms offered for the word “daily” continue in rote: “day-after-day, day-to-day, each day,” on and on, over and over. With each similar phrase I nod my head as I read, soon being taken beyond the list of words to a steady rhythm. It is through the same rhythm that an occurrence becomes a habit, a custom, a practice: through the pattern of the day-to-day—the daily rhythm. Through openness and awareness in these daily practices, Christians who seek the holy can begin to experience something far greater than the ordinary—they can encounter the kingdom of God.

            Daily practices in Christian spirituality can be traced back to the beginning of time—day seven, to be specific. “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts,” the text of Genesis reads; “By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all his work which God had created and made.” That seventh day came to be known as Sabbath. God emphasizes the importance of observing the Sabbath as spiritual practice when he gives Moses the Ten Commandments. God’s fourth commandment to His people is this: “remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God.”

            In his book Sabbath, Dan Allender emphasizes that God did not need rest on the seventh day; rather, he spent the time delighting in the completion of His perfect kingdom. Though we are no longer in the garden because of sin and brokenness, God desires for us to both remember and hope for the kingdom for which we were created through practicing Sabbath. His decree to “keep it holy” emphasizes the uniqueness of the Sabbath practice: to be “holy” is to be “set apart.” Of the pursuit of the holy, Allender writes: “The holy comes in a moment when we are captured by beauty, and a dance of delight swirls us beyond the moment to taste the expanse of eternity in, around, and before us.”

And thus the spiritual and daily practices blossom out of God’s command to keep the Sabbath, for as Christians we practice these things with hopes of being “captured by beauty,” seeking to “taste the expanse of eternity in, around, and before us.” We are followers in pursuit of the kingdom of God, and we practice through the faith that we are united with God and can experience His holiness, just as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

            In Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices, author Brian McLaren speaks about this faith through the lens of contemplative practice: “the contemplative tradition claims that we human beings can also experience the living God in this life in ways that range from gentle and subtle to dramatic, ravishing, and electrifying.” McLaren goes on to list traditional contemplative practices, “means by which we become prepared for grace to surprise us”: along with Sabbath, he includes simplicity and slowness, gratitude and feasting, fixed-hour and contemplative prayer, and meditation and memorization. “By using them,” McLaren says, “we prepare ourselves to receive ‘the good coincidences of life: the priceless, quiet gift of well-being; the gentle habit of living deep and loving well; and sometimes, even, the lightning strike of inspiration or ecstasy that arcs by surprise into our souls from the fullness of God.”

            I explore these practices by writing what I know and wonder, for daily practices are nothing without daily experiences. I am learning to exist—to simplify and slow down in the moment; as I cultivate I am discovering gratitude and what it means to feast on God’s provisions; in my desire to pray I am exploring what it means to allow God the chance to stir through fixed-hour and contemplative prayer; and as I move in my practice of yoga, I am beginning to deepen my experience of strength and stillness through meditation and memorization. As I practice these things I am ultimately seeking the holy, with hopes of being surprised by the kingdom of God experienced in the Sabbath that I long for in the day-to-day.