A part of being involved in any commissioned ministry typically involves the adoption of a Rule of Life.  An effort to do as our early monastic and desert fathers and mothers did, a Rule of Life was described by one author as  ” simply a structure in which spiritual formation is facilitated.”   He continues, “The point of a Rule of Life, for communities or individuals, is that life should be lived in balance, with God as the focal point.  A Rule of Life can provide us with the information and guidelines we need to get on the path of intentional practice of our Faith, and the loving accountability we need to keep us there.”  For me, a Rule of Life is very simply planned time to spend in communication with God, the source, Love. 

Just as children and job stress and ’stuff’ can get in the way of our interpersonal relationships, they, too, get in the way of our spiritual development.  When one realizes that communing (or lack thereof) with the Divine is what informs the other relationships in one’s life, one yearns for the discipline to plug into that source of Love.  I have that desire.

I’ve mentioned before that oftentimes there is a distance between wanting and doing.  There are so many examples of this in my life, it’s almost funny.  And yet, I still yearn.

My Rule of Life has been to meditate for any amount of time in the morning; it is to say the prayers that will follow today’s excerpt; it is to sit with my Spiritual Director regularly to help me live those prayers .   Sometimes this rule is fulfilled in bed or in the car, on the phone, or in a waiting room.  I invite you to offer what your Rule of Life has been, whether it’s been in the path of spiritual development, or rather in an attempt to just keep up with life.

Psalm 119:145-176. Early in the morning I cry out to you.

 

On the first day of the week I had set aside to begin writing these meditations, I was up at 5:30 a.m. My plan was to do chores, get cleaned up, attend  Morning Prayer at my church in town, then return to the country for a full day of silent meditation  and inspired writing.

 

But about fifteen minutes short of town, I had to stop on a dark, two-lane country road after a tire  blew. Help came in the form of my husband, and another thirty minutes had me on the road–not to Morning Prayer but to the tire store.

 

As I meandered the winding road toward town, I pondered how the morning schedule had similarly turned, first this way then that. One unfamiliar with our country road might anxiously anticipate what  unknown events and places lie ahead. But today’s psalm also reassures, “You, O Lord, are near at hand.”

 

The nearness of the Lord for me today would be the waiting room at the tire shop where I could read the scriptures away from distractions at home and meditate on what words would follow this month. “Great is your compassion, O Lord.” (forward movement)