I’m really excited because I just finished writing a paper for my spiritual formation class outlining my rule of life. A rule of life is a way to think intentionally about how you live your life and what things you think will bring you most fully into the sort of life you want to live. (Read more about it here.) Because I’m excited about what I wrote I want to share it with you. If you make it all the way through the rule (it’s rather long… :-S) you can read my thoughts on how and why I wrote it after that.
This was one of those things that was first chaos in my brain and then formed itself into order, which is one of my most favorite feelings in the world and which is why I think I’m excited to share it with you. Turns out writing a rule of life is illuminating. You should try it!
Tapestry of Life
I am committed to find balance in the interwoven purists of Personal Wholeness, Intentional Presence, and Relational Investment through a set of practices that lead me to greater depth and unity with the Divine. I think of my rule as a tapestry I weave with my life: each pursuit a different color, each category of engagement a different spool of thread, and each practice an individual strand of fiber. As I go through life I will choose different strands of practice to spin into the threads of engagement from which I will seek to weave an ever evolving pattern of life.
As I seek a continual balance of Personal Wholeness, Intentional Presence, and Relational Investment, I will explore practices in each pursuit that both comfort and challenge me. I will view my rule as a set of possibilities rather than a set of requirements. I commit to kindness and patience for myself, love for others, and submission to the transforming work of the risen Christ in all things.
Personal Wholeness
I commit to pursuing personal wholeness in body, mind and spirit. My ability to live at one with myself is intimately connected with my ability to commune with the Spirit of God that animates my being. As I become more fully the person I have been created to be, I will grow towards unity with the Divine. Out of this unity, my life will shine glory and love into the world. The threads of Personal Wholeness will include:
Inner Work and Soul Listening
The journey into personal wholeness cannot be undertaken alone. I will seek guidance, clarity, and challenge from a companion committed to helping me seek God’s best for myself and my life.
Strands of Practice: therapy, spiritual direction, pastoral care, soul friendship
Art and Creative Expression
I find connection with my inmost self and the Creator God through engagements with art and created beauty. I will be both creator and partaker of creative expression.
Strands of Practice: playing the piano, writing, creating visual art; attending concerts, writer’s conferences, and public readings; visiting art museums and cultural centers; attentiveness to street performers, public art, and well-crafted food.
Bodily Awareness and Physical Health
To experience personal wholeness I must learn to be in union with my body. Life in my body is the only way I am present in the world, and so I will both listen to and care for my body. I will seek ways to unify my spiritual practice with my body.
Strands of Practice: attention to emotion expressed in my body; cherishing my body as the sustainer of my life; caring for my body through exercise, sufficient rest, and healthy eating; unifying body and spirit in spiritual practice by burning incense, kneeling, singing, partaking in communion, lighting candles, practicing yoga, dancing
Mental Engagement and Lifelong Learning
I feel most fully alive when I am engaging my mind and am expending effort in learning. I experience wholeness and joy when my mind and intuition work together to understand new and complex things. I will also seek ways to put my learning and understanding into service on behalf of the community.
Strands of Practice: formal academic study, reading scholarly books, attending lectures, participation in book clubs or community classes.
Intentional Presence
I commit to intentionally seeking and dwelling in the presence of God. God is present everywhere, at all times, but becoming aware of this presence requires mindfulness and intentionality. I commit to exploring practices that will help me become attune to the presence of God in a way that is life-giving, flexible, and sustainable. The threads of Intentional Presence will include:
Prayer and Contemplation
There are many ways to practice prayer and contemplation in order to open myself to the awareness of God’s transforming presence. My rhythms of prayer and intention will shift as my circumstances change and as I am transformed.
Strands of Practice: lectio divina, centering prayer, Ignatian imaginatory prayer, daily examine, silence and solitude, the Jesus Prayer, walking a prayer labyrinth, prayer beads, daily offices, praying the Psalter, icons
Communal Prayer and Worship
Dwelling in the communion of the saints is a key component of experiencing the living presence of God. Communal prayer locates me in the Body of Christ, brings me into communion with the worldwide Church, and reminds me that my faith is to be lived in community. I find perseverance and focus when I pray in community.
Strands of Practice: Holy Eucharist, Taizé worship, daily offices, chapel service, community prayer and worship gatherings
Sacred Space
In order to know the presence of God I must create space in my life where I can be attentive to the voice of the Spirit. Sacred space includes physical places and metaphorical margins in life.
Strands of Practice: spending time outdoors in parks, forests, mountains, or near water; churches with expansive architecture; moments of silence; controlling busyness and over-activity in life; periodic retreats
Relational Investment
I commit to the outward practice of my faith through relational investment. Just as God is in relationship within God’s self, I am created to live in relationship with others and the earth. God’s life of love calls me into a life of community, and I will experience the fullness of God’s life only when I am invested in relationship. The threads of Relational Investment will include:
Intentional Relationships
It is through mutual relationship that I most experience and extend the presence of God. When I bring my whole self to relationships I have the chance of being transformed by the image of God in another.
Strands of Practice: cultivating a few deep, long-term friendships; genuine listening and intentional presence with others in my work and personal life; taking risks and pursuing relationship; involvement in church or community groups of study, service, or fellowship
Simplicity and Justice
I am called to relationship with the people I encounter in my everyday life, but I must also live in relationship with the human community and the created order. I will strive for greater unity with all of humanity and the environment through the pursuit of just economic practices, simple living, global awareness, and peacemaking.
Strands of Practice: financial responsibility in my own life, generosity and hospitality, simple living and purchasing practices, preference for local and/or responsibly grown produce, preference for well-crafted and locally made products, mindful transportation, continued awareness of justice issues and violence, buying thrift, community service, advocacy, inter-faith engagement
Prayer and Lament
The world is full of brokenness and death, but God has promised wholeness and life. Lament acknowledges the disparity between what is and what should be by calling on God to fulfill God’s promise and calling people to a vision of shalom. I believe that I am called to voice lament as an invitation to risk hope in both my own life and the life of the human community.
Strands of Practice: creating space for individual and communal words/prayers of lament and grief, prophetic speech calling for active awareness of injustice and brokenness, preaching a gospel of hope and love as an invitation to the shalom of God
Commentary on My Rule
My rule of life has turned out very differently than what I had expected. When I imagined writing it three months ago, I assumed that I would end up with a set of practices and rhythms that I would commit to practicing on a daily and yearly basis. What I ended up with, however, is a metaphor of art and a commitment to balance in a world of possibilities.
As I studied spiritual practices and as I took an honest look at how I am likely to live, I realized that if I wrote a series of specific practices and rules I would be bound to fail. I wanted my rule of life to be just that: life. I started writing by listing all of the things I could think of that bring me life. I was excited to look at my list and see a pattern immerge. I began to see that the things that bring me life involve peaceful relationships with myself, with God, and with the world. I also realized that while I am able to categorize my list in this way enough to write it, all of these things are interconnected and in reality cannot be lived apart from one another.
I think that a balanced life involves all things in mutual, interpenetrating relationship mirrored after the relationship of God within the Trinity. I cannot be whole within myself without connection with the Divine. I cannot know God without relationship with others. I cannot reach out to other unless I have a whole self from which to reach. I have written a rule that attempts to name the components of my life that must remain in balance if I am to experience the fullness of life offered by the living God.
While the rule is based on the simplicity of three main pursuits, the ways to live and balance these components are vast and manifold. In my rule I attempted to briefly describe the pursuits of Personal Wholeness, Intentional Presence, and Relational Investment, and I symbolized them using differing colors. I then listed the general categories that I find integral to my pursuits and spoke of them as the different spools of thread used to weave the tapestry. Finally, under each category, I used the idea of individual strands of thread that are spun into a string of yarn to symbolize various practices I might choose to engage. I found it very important to create a broad list of possible practices because this gives me both direction and freedom when it comes to how I live each day. My rule does not demand adherence to any specific practices, but instead invites me to examine where I need balance and what options I can explore to move towards union with God.
This is my first attempt at writing my rule and so I expect that it will shift and change over time. Right now I find that I am working more intentionally on Personal Wholeness than the other areas of my rule. In school I am taxing both my mind and my heart as I grown in both academic and personal knowledge. I look to my rule to remind me that it is important to put time and energy towards presence with God and others, but I have grace for myself for the ways in which I am able or unable to do this in any given moment. As I continue to grow and as my life circumstances change I suspect that I will find myself weighted towards the other components of my rule at other times. It is my hope that my rule will continue to gently call me into the life of shalom offered by the transformative presence of God.