What the Pandemic Reveals About Our Spiritual Life and Sources
What do we do when our usual sources for spiritual inspiration and nurture are unavailable or inaccessible? This has been the reality for many of us since early March 2020. Our church community stopped gathering for the typical in-person weekly service and instead went online. Our small group has stopped meeting in person. Our opportunity for ministry is on pause out of respect for the threat of COVID-19. Most, if not all, our normal rhythms have been interrupted.
The pandemic has revealed many things about ourselves, faith, and the church's role in our lives. But I want to reflect on three specific things resulting from our separation from one another.
Three Things I Have Learned from the Absence of Community
First, I have remembered how much face-to-face gatherings keep us centered on living as Christ-followers. In a way, these gatherings create a structure and rhythm to our lives that make it easier to learn, grow, serve, and experience God. All we have to do is take the time and join in. Someone else has already scheduled the time, designed the experience, incorporated the right elements, and given us a way to participate. And when all that is gone, we realize how hard it is to sustain spiritual vitality and live meaningfully with God day in and day out.
Second, I realize that we can join in the community experiences created by others and not grow and learn. For these community events to be impactful, we need to be genuine participants. We need to be attentive to God and responsive to his voice and activity among us. We need to reflect on the words we hear, consider their meaning for our lives, and be available to each other in the moment. We need to intend to live into what we experience beyond the gathering.
Third, I am aware that community gatherings are not enough. We need to take personal responsibility for our spiritual depth and vitality. We need to develop our own habits and rhythms that create spaces where we encounter God, are drawn deeper into life with him, are challenged and transformed, and ultimately freed and empowered to live more like Christ and serve with Christ. We need each other to become all that God desires for us. But we can’t depend entirely on others for our spiritual life.
Taking Responsibility for our Spiritual Vitality
I was a pastor for 41 years and knew better than to discount the critical role that others play in our spiritual vitality and formation. We were never intended to make it work on our own. But we all know that everything is a "both-and" proposition. I learned early as a pastor that I could not only seek God and read Scripture for something to say to the church. I needed to seek God and read Scripture for myself. God forbid, as the apostle Paul said, that I would “get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.” (1 Corinthians 9:27 MSG).
It was also vital that I had something to give that I genuinely believed in and was rooted in my experience with God and my lived faith. We each must be committed to the personal pursuit of Christ for our own sake so that when we enter those shared spaces, we can bring something real and alive to the table. And those times when we come wounded and empty, we can be grateful that we aren’t the only ones taking responsibility for our personal spiritual life.
The pandemic is an opportunity to discover if we can sustain our beliefs, values, Christlike disposition, and the vitality of our relationship with God under any conditions. And if we have learned that we are not capable, then there is no time better than the present to develop practices and rhythms that will sustain us.
Lectio Divina: Grounding My Spiritual Life for Challenging Times
Personally, I have committed myself to growth in transformative intimacy with God. I am working to cultivate ever-deepening participation in the life and love of God. This participation forms me more fully into the likeness of Christ and frees me to partner with him more fully in mission through the course of my daily life.
It should come as no surprise that lectio divina lies at the center of all my efforts to sustain my spiritual life. Lectio divina refers to the holistic, relational, and conversational process designed to facilitate a meaningful and transformative encounter with God through Scripture. I think of lectio divina as the foundation or hub of the various practices in which I engage personally and communally.
My Recommendation
On the one hand, I would say start with some spiritual practice that you know has been life-giving and transformative for you at some point in your life. On the other hand, I would say learn lectio divina. It is a pattern that typifies divine-human encounters recorded throughout Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. It is not only a useful guide for engaging God through Scripture; it is an effective guide for attempting to do almost anything in cooperation with God. And it functions as a paradigm or model that can integrate and simplify all other spiritual practices.
If you want to practice lectio divina, I suggest that you carve out 20-30 minutes if feasible. Just be realistic! Start with the downloadable guide in the resource section of my website lectio4life.com.
1) print out the guide,
2) choose a chapter in the New Testament as a starting point,
3) and read a small section while following the guide
After you work with the guide a few times, review the short video lessons (average 10 minutes) presented on my YouTube channel, lectio4life. I suggest watching them in the sequence listed from 1 through 6.
Finally, if you feel like you need more help to get the hang of lectio divina, join the community by subscribing to lectio4life and email me at lectio4ife@gmail.com.
