Habits of holiness

Journaling, prayer, fasting and other disciplines add depth, resilience to spiritual life

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette holiness illustration.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette holiness illustration.

Father Tom Elliott spends time each day writing a letter to God. It's a spiritual discipline known as journal writing and it's one the Catholic priest has practiced for more than a decade.

For Elliott, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in North Little Rock, the practice of journal writing has been fulfilling.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Catholics often use the beads of a rosary in prayer as a form of spiritual practice.

"I'm a big proponent of journaling," he said, adding that writing things down helps him work through his thoughts. "I see myself write things that maybe I wasn't even aware of or hadn't yet voiced. Another benefit is to begin to see the patterns of what God is trying to communicate to me, what primary graces I have been praying for and the patterns of sin I haven't really recognized."

Spiritual disciplines include practices such as prayer, fasting, worship, service, periods of silence and solitude and journal writing, among others. Elliott said spiritual disciplines like these can be beneficial, but only if there is a relational aspect. In other words, without the right motivation, the discipline or practice becomes boring and it won't last.

"It's not enough to say, 'I'm going to take up a habit of journaling.' It will fall apart unless it's relational and part of encountering God. They might pray the rosary every day, but they are falling asleep or trying to just get through it, and because the motivation is wrong, they just don't survive very long," he said.

Donald Whitney writes about that very thing in his best-selling book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

"Discipline without direction is drudgery," he writes.

Whitney, who grew up in Osceola, is a professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean for the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He said spiritual disciplines are practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth.

"They are habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since biblical times," he said.

ALONE AND TOGETHER

Spiritual disciplines can be found among all the world's major religions, but Whitney's book focuses specifically on the biblically based practices found in Christianity. He stresses the importance of personal and interpersonal disciplines -- those practiced alone as well as those done with others.

"We are to worship God alone but also with the church, to pray alone but also in church. The interpersonal is often forgotten," he said.

The disciplines he focuses on are Bible reading, prayer, worship, evangelism, service, stewardship, fasting, silence and solitude, journal writing and learning. He said the disciplines are a means, not an end.

"The end -- that is, the purpose of practicing the disciplines -- is godliness," he said.

For Elliott, journal writing didn't come easily. It took him a couple of years to get into the habit of daily writing. He starts by reviewing the previous day's entry so he can continue the conversation.

"It's a continuity of consciousness," he said. "Every day's prayer isn't an island but a continuity."

He writes his prayers down, focuses on a Scripture or a particular inspirational quotation, or sometimes an image or painting, then progresses to his letter to God. He filled journal after journal before making the switch to an electronic format two or three years ago.

"That was a huge step for me that I thought I would never take but it has been unbelievably amazing," he said. "I didn't think it would be quite as personal and intimate."

A NEW RESOLUTION

On the first Sunday of the new year the Rev. Lowell Grisham, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, urged his parishioners to make a different kind of resolution -- to focus on their spiritual health and vitality through the practice of spiritual disciplines.

Grisham said the disciplines fit into the church's "rule of life," which is: "To better serve our mission we aspire to worship weekly, pray daily, learn constantly, serve joyfully and live generously."

In the Episcopal tradition, many follow instructions for morning and evening prayer found in the Book of Common Prayer.

"It's a way of participating in the systematic reading of Scripture, especially those grounded in the Psalms," he said.

Grisham has written a booklet on various prayer styles, including lectio divina (meditating on Scripture) and centering prayer as spiritual practices.

He practices the disciplines of Scripture reading and prayer, specifically centering prayer, and finds it grounds him.

"The Scripture and prayers form and inform me," he said. "The practice of centering prayer helps me be less reactive and more present."

Grisham said each person has to find his own way of feeding the soul -- one that fits his personality and own spiritual goals.

"I know some people who pray best when they move, some people whose prayer is more in their finding service activities that are meaningful to them," he said. "I know people who pray while they jog, who find that reconnecting with nature becomes the way their souls are fed. There are a lot of ways to pray."

Whitney updated his book, first published in 1991, last fall and added new material, including several methods of meditating on Scripture, which he calls the "greatest single devotional need of most Christians."

"The two most important personal spiritual disciplines are the intake of the word and prayer, and in that order," he said. "It's more important for us to hear from God than for God to hear from us in prayer."

Scripture and prayer form the foundation of the other disciplines, he said, adding that without that foundation, the other disciplines are useless. But many fail with both, he said.

"It's true among the most devoted Bible readers. They will read every day but close their Bible and as it's closed they would have to admit they don't remember a thing they read," he said.

They'll assume it's because of a bad memory or a problem with reading comprehension, he said.

"I believe the problem is a lack of meditation on Scripture," he said. "The problem is not that you are a second-rate Christian, it's your method and the method of most people is to read the Bible. But reading without meditation is like putting a thing in a bag with holes."

He suggests taking half the time to read the Scripture and the other half to meditate and reflect on it.

"It's better to read less and remember something than to read more and remember nothing," he said.

NEW YEAR'S CHALLENGE

The Rev. Mike McDaniel, pastor of Grace Point Church, a Baptist congregation in Bentonville, challenged his congregation to read the Bible daily for 40 days, starting this past Sunday, and to write in a journal each day. More than 700 accepted the challenge.

McDaniel said the church did a live survey in November, asking members to text in how often they read the Bible. Thirty-one percent said they read the Bible five days or more a week, better than the national average that the Barna Group's own survey revealed. The research organization looks at faith and culture and found that in 2014 only 19 percent of those surveyed read the Bible four or more days a week.

"I said 'OK, Grace Point, we're better than the average church but we are still flunking,'" McDaniel said. "If only 31 percent are actively in the word, I think we are still missing it."

McDaniel said he asked those accepting the challenge to read a chapter a day and to record one truth or thought from their reading each day and to also realign their life according to each day's reading. He also encouraged them to be vigorous about praying.

"If I want to become something, I've got to do certain things to get there. There are certain disciplines that I need to take on and practice," he said. "If I want to lose X number of pounds, then I'm going to have to do the hard work in the gym and at the table if I expect to see changes, and the same is true in my spiritual life. If we aren't willing to make the sacrifice, realign and refocus, that's not going to happen."

He quoted famed Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who said, "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they've always wanted."

"People don't really want to fast or pray, but they want the results of the fast and of the prayer," McDaniel said.

That's where spiritual disciplines come in.

The Rev. Steve Hancock, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, also encourages his congregation to engage in spiritual disciplines, particularly prayer. He preached a series on various types of prayer last fall, including praying with Scripture, meditative prayer, prayer as lament and others.

"I was trying to encourage them to take a protected daily time to be in the presence of God," he said. "From my own experience, prayer does need structure. It needs some protected time and some regular rhythms. If we just do it when we feel like it, it's probably not going to last long. There needs to be some regularity, some discipline to it."

Hancock said he thinks that spiritual disciplines, and prayer in particular, "help us to pay attention to the work of grace in our lives. It can help us consciously develop the spiritual dimension in our lives."

"I think many of us have a checkered history with prayer," he said. "We start with good intentions and fall away, but the good news is that God is always there. He's ready to welcome us back and we can start again."

Hancock said he finds prayer very important in his own life.

"When I have done that -- carved out and protected that time for quiet and meditative prayer -- I think it results in not only a deeper spiritual life for me but I also find my ministry is more alive and more fruitful," he said. "Personally for me these spiritual disciplines, particularly times of prayer and paying attention to God in a particular way, are very important to pastoring. At least it is for me."

Religion on 01/10/2015

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