Nicole’s e-Pistle

August 14, 2024

Greetings, dear ones!

Last week, when Bjorn and the kids returned from Florida, Bjorn brought with him five or six boxes of books from our storage unit. These were donated to me by two different retired pastors in Peace River Presbytery. Being the book-lover that I am, I have reveled in holding each book, skimming the cover to see what it is about, and placing it in one of my categories, such as “Systematic Theology” (I now have the complete sets of John Calvin’s and Karl Barth’s published works), “Christian Leadership,” or “Social Justice,” among many others.

I texted a friend from seminary, who was very aware of my love of books and libraries and kidded that this task is almost like a spiritual practice for me! (She dutifully sent a laughing emoji.) This goes a little beyond a joke for me. In seminary, I struggled a great deal any time professors asked us to detail what we do for spiritual practices. My Catholic friends are not strangers to prayer beads, pilgrimages, or praying to the saints, but in my own PC(USA) upbringing, I was taught to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” and to pray “God is great, God is good…” before a meal and “Now I lay me down to sleep…” before bed. As an adult and second-career seminarian, the idea of developing some elaborate spiritual practice unnerved me. I dabbled in Yoga in college, I’ve never been able to keep a diary (much less a prayer journal), I fall asleep during meditation, and I do not consider binge-watching Netflix to be all that spiritual!

As I continued to sort through these tried-and-true volumes on theology and the art of being a pastor, I came across a yellowed and worn-looking book by Jana Riess (I have no idea who she is) entitled fLunking sainthooed. In the preface, she confesses that she had embarked on a year-long journey of reading classic theological texts and of practicing a new spiritual practice each month of the year. She gave the reader a spoiler that she had failed every single practice she tried… Now, this is a woman I can relate to! I dove into the first chapter and instantly decided I would read one chapter a day and be finished with the book in less than two weeks. (There I go, making goals again!)

In the chapter, she references another author who wrote about the Israelites responding to God in Exodus 24, saying “All that you have said we will do and hear.” In all my life, I never noticed that they promise to do what God said before they hear what God asked them to do! Evidently, Jewish rabis explain that we cannot truly understand, or hear, what God is trying to tell us, until we do what He says. Only then does the meaning begin to sink in…

Perhaps that is where I have struggled with spiritual practices. I try to understand the point of a practice – what am I supposed to get from it? What am I supposed to be offering to God through this practice? Perhaps, if I allow myself to begin something for its own sake, I will be drawn closer to hearing God through the practice itself… I’ll let you know how it goes!

Blessings and peace,