Faith Works 10-13-18
Jeff Gill
Spiritual disciplines online
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An oxymoron is a phrase, usually two words, which at least seem to contradict each other.
"Jumbo shrimp" is a common candidate for oxymoron status. Perhaps unfairly, so is "military intelligence." (Hey, some of my best friends have been G-2s…)
Online spiritual disciplines can be considered a modern oxymoron. Much of what I read about spirituality tends to start with telling people to put down the phone, shut down the computer, get away from screens of all sorts.
Ironically, I usually read that sort of stuff on a laptop.
Once upon a time I subscribed to a number of periodicals that included spiritual readings and reflections and prayers. "Weavings" was a publication from the "The Upper Room," which was discontinued in 2017. "The Upper Room" still puts out a monthly daily devotional booklet that's popular at the church I serve; "Our Daily Bread," "These Days," "Today in the Word," "Give Us This Day," "Our Sunday Visitor," and of course "Guideposts" all still exist in print form.
But like "Weavings," the print format is getting shakier and shakier in terms of financial viability. More websites and apps for smartphones are taking the place of the little booklet or magazine, and instead of debating when it's time to shift to the large print edition, you can just take your thumb and forefinger and make the typeface bigger right there on your tablet or device.
I certainly hope they don't all go away; there's something to be said for the tangible, the carried around, the object on whose pages you can scribble notes and inspirations. They are diminishing, though, and the move to virtual publications is well-nigh inexorable.
What I want to do here is not to endorse any particular format or website online for spiritual growth. There are too many of them, and more are going to a subscription format where, like this paper, you can look a bit, but beyond a few clicks you'll have to pay something. I have my preferences, but they may not be yours.
For anyone, I think the key to a spiritual discipline using social media or online tools is the same as an old breviary or prayer book, leather covered and cherished with bookmarks and funeral cards tucked into the pages. None of them work without some form of regularity, a pattern or practice of prayer.
If you have a schedule and a standard cycle of prayer, I doubt if it matters much whether you use a book, a magazine, or your phone. If you tend to give God and the cultivation of your soul what's left over, when you feel like you can get to it, what would it matter if you had the latest app with special ringtones to remind you? A prayer corner in the home, cherished and tended but never sat down in, gathering dust, isn't going to do the spiritual growth for you.
Mornings are common; in most Christian traditions and many other faiths, morning and noon and night, a three-fold pattern of intentional pausing for prayer, is a benchmark. As is now well-known, Muslims pray five times a day; Christian monastics have a "liturgy of the hours" that marks seven times in each twenty-four hour day.
For many of us, a good start is simply prayer at meal times. You can't evade that necessity, and a fast food burger is as worthy of your thankfulness as a Thanksgiving turkey. Prayer at each mealtime can be a framework on which to build.
Bedtime prayer depends on the person, and how tired you are when you head off to sleep. Some pray on their commute, a long twice daily time of reflection and intercession.
However you do it, find a pattern you can stick with. Starting with the liturgy of the hours and seven times a day is probably like telling a couch potato to start fitness by running a marathon. Mealtimes and on waking up? Find your benchmarks to nudge yourself into regular, patterned prayer, whatever they might be.
And then you can work into your prayer life that which feeds you. The last forty days I've been posting a different prayer each day from a variety of people, eras, and traditions, on behalf of my wider church body that needs a boost. Many have told me they look forward to reading those, and working some of each into their own prayers.
You know where I found forty good prayers worth sharing? Online.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he prays a great deal, and not enough. Tell him about your prayer practices at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
