Living in Rhythm

As we’ve been reminded in our current series, For All Intents and Purposes, our life with God requires intentionality. We will not be zapped with lightning and changed in an instant, despite our very strong wish that this could be so. Instead, our transformation is more like a long journey, requiring steadiness and purpose to arrive at the destination. We want to be Christlike, but how do we get there?

For years I heard about the practice of developing a Rule of Life, which is a statement of an individual’s (or group’s) specific intentions for daily, weekly, monthly and annual living and cooperation with the grace of God. However, nothing with the word “rule” in it is appealing to me. For one thing, I don’t like being told what to do and immediately want to do the opposite. Clearly, I have some issues. Secondly, even writing my own Rule made me feel like I would be boxed into my relationship with God, and I’ve been on the journey long enough to know that change is good and discomforts me in ways I need to be stretched and challenged.

But then I received a little booklet from Renovare on Rhythms of Life and read that the word “Rule” was more closely related to a ruler – that handy device for making straight lines. To quote from the booklet, “A Rule of Life outlines a pattern of living which is immersed in Christ, and invites us to shape ourselves to it- to become straight and true. Those wooden rules we used in school never commanded us to draw triangles, nor told us where the triangles should be drawn, nor did they make us draw rectangles instead. But, when we wanted to draw a triangle well, they suddenly became invaluable.” With that encouragement, I began to draw up my own Rule of Life. After using my Rule for the past year or so, what I lack is the voice of another asking me “How are you doing? Why is this commitment in your Rule and yet you almost never do it? What are your true intentions?”

A group of people recently went through a Spiritual Formation retreat on how to develop a Rule of Life, and I thought about how useful it would be for me to have others to experiment with in this endeavor. So, I am going to be meeting with anyone who wants to join me over ten Thursday evenings to share our Rules, refine them, and most especially implement them. And ask some nosy questions about where we’re finding it hard to put our “intentions” into actual practice. If you find this appealing and would like to meet with us, send me an email or give me a call. Even if you didn’t attend the retreat, you can get a Rule developed before our first meeting. Start by reading the eleven page Renovare booklet – it’s packed with practical information. We’ll meet from October 21- January 13 (with breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas) at the church. Hopefully at the end of this time we will have fully engaged ourselves in living with our own rule and rhythm and will have become more “straight and true” in our lives with Jesus.