For many, the word discipline connotes being held accountable for some shortcoming or misstep, often by those who hold authority or sway in our lives. But when it comes to our spiritual lives, being disciplined means to live fully into our identities as disciples, answering the call to look seriously and intentionally at what God is teaching us.
This week's readings invite you to practice spiritual discipline as a way of delving deeply into the bottomless well of your soul. We offer these perspectives with prayers for God's peace~
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We are people of patterns. We play out those patterns again and again in our lives, even when they are tiring or unhealthy. We play them out even while we are in the process of attempting to alter them.
We want new patterns to be configured in us yet we wonder if we will ever break free from what keeps us bound.
Discipline is a word that hearkens back toour childhood, or to the machinations of those in our lives who want us to conform to certain behaviors or to the needed requirement for developing character. Actually, the word is grounded in the word disciple, which means a learner.
Discipline can become for us a way to encounter new learnings about ourselves and to actively engage in extracting from those learnings insights that can deepen our understanding of life and spirit.
Lent invites us to re-enter the school of life and be discipled in the endless possibilities for growth.Take time this week to try out discipline with a new intention, and find the world opening up to you.
Journaling Question: What is life trying to teach me and how open am I to learning?
Jesus told them, “You have a saying that goes, ‘Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.' You find it easy enough to forecast the weather—why can't you read the signs of the times?'”
—Matthew 16:3, The Message Bible
The Journey of Seeking God
When your soul whispers of its deepest longings,
may you quiet yourself to listen.
May you follow the path of yearning to the One alone
who blends the uneven edges
into a life of meaning.
Sorting it Out:
What Comes from the Spirit God, today, help me look up long enough that I feel your love bending down and filling me with wisdom and grace.
