Dear Faith Family,
"Scheduled habits defend from chaos and whim.
They are a net for catching days."
(Annie Dillard)
If "work," truly is everything that we do in word or deed to make a life, good; and not just the labor through which we make money. If "work" is "a way of life in which the nature of humanity should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God," then how do we do so? How can we be getting out of work the whole and holiness for which we (and it) are made?
Well, the too-simple-yet-not-reductionist answer is: habits. More specifically, the scheduled habits of entering the roles and responsibilities we are given, recollecting ourselves within them, and exiting our daily labors into the rest of what is finished.
There is an old wisdom that knows we cannot get out of work its essential goodness without intentionality, without structured, scheduled habits that, as Annie Dillard's quote above reminds us, keep us from being tossed about in the chaos and by the whims of whatever and whomever we find ourselves throughout the day. Schedule habits ensure that we catch the day, rather than letting it slip away. Likewise, continues Dillard, scheduled habits, "are scaffolds on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time." They free us to do our work from a steady, secure footing, allowing us to "serve the work" with full attention and effort.
Scheduled habits are "a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time… a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living." And since our goal is not merely to do good work today, but to live a good life through the work we have been crafted to join Jesus in doing, perhaps we should consider the scheduled habits that will help us reach our end.
While there is no shortage of habits, rules, and liturgies handed down through the centuries by our faithful foreparents to give structure to our days, I'd like to suggest three scheduled habits to help us get out of work, the life we have been gifted in Christ.
The Lord's Prayer For Work
A Centering Prayer At Work
The Examen For Work's End
I provide brief instructions for each of these scheduled habits below. But, before you jump to them, I would suggest you take a few minutes to (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. Doing so will both help you see how the scheduled habits fit within a day, as well as the context that allows them to be something more than routines.
May we find the joy in our serving that which we have been empowered and gifted to do.
Love you, faith family. God bless.
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THE LORD'S PRAYER FOR WORK
When: Each morning before you start doing anything else.
What: Pray the words adapted from Jesus' instructions.
Our Father in heaven, let your name be treated with reverence.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, through me, in my place as it is in heaven.
I give my whole self to you through the work you have given me this day.
Give us this day our bread for tomorrow,
and forgive us our debts =, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever,
which you share with me through Christ.
Amen.
A CENTERING PRAYER AT WORK
When: Schedule three times during the day when you know you will be prone to being distracted, disoriented, bored, or in need of being attentive to God's presence.
What: Pray this simple prayer while...
Breathing In: "I am..." (hold your breath for 3 seconds, then)
Breathing Out: "...still with you." (then get back to work!)
THE EXAMEN FOR WORK'S END
When: The last thing you do before you go to sleep.
What: Ask the Holy Spirit to examine your day and show you when you were:
Working out-of-step with Jesus (repent, resting in His mercies new every morning)
and then ask to see when you were…
Working in rhythm with Jesus (affirm the effectiveness of God's good design)
Then let the Spirit lead your body and soul into the rest at work's end.